LIBRA.RY 

OF   THE 

Theological   Seminar 

y, 

PRINCETON,    N.  J. 

Case,,, 
Shelf, 

.^X.62J3-l Qivisicn 

.^\dlL. S.£c;a;. 

Book, 

No  ,. 

Lectures  on  Baptist  History. 


LECTURES 


ON 


Baptist  History. 


BY 


AviLLiAM  R.  'Williams. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN  BAPTIST   PUBLICATION  SOCIETY, 

1420    CHESTNUT   STREET. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tiie  year  1877,  by  the 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST   PUBLICATION  SOCIETY, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Wkstcott  k   Thomsoit,  Gea5T,   Faires,  k    RonfiEES, 

Stercvtypcre  and  EUctrotypers,  Philada.  Frinter6,  riulada. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

PAGK 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST,  THE   LORD'S  HARBINGER 9 


II. 
THE  KINGDOM   OF   GOD  AS  SET  UP  BY  CHRIST 39 

III. 
BAPTISM  AND  REGENERATION 65 

IV. 

THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT  BY  CHRIST  AND    AS    MADE 
BY  MAN 91 

V. 
OUR  CHURCHES    UNDER  THE  BAN   OF  ANTICHRIST 119 

\I. 
THE  ANABAPTISTS  OF  THE  CONTINENT  AND  ENGLAND.  141 

VII. 

RATIONALISM   IN   ITS   RELATION  TO  OUR  CHURCHES....  169 
1*  5 


6  *  CONTENTS. 

VIII. 

PAGE 

THE  BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 203 

IX. 

THE    BAPTISTS    OF    THE    COMMONWEALTH    AND    PRO- 
TECTORATE   231 

X. 

JOHN   BUNYAN 263 

XL 

BAPTISTS  AND  MISSIONS 291 

XII. 
BAPTISTS  AND  THE  FUTURE 321 


I. 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST, 

ouE  LOED^s  haebi:ngee. 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST, 

OUE   LORD'S    HARBUnTGER. 


The  introduction  of  Christianity  into  our  world  has 
been  recognized  by  a  modern  French  writer,  who  has 
discoursed  upon  society  and  philosophy,  as  being  the 
greatest  moral  revolution  recorded  in  the  annals  of  our 
race. 

Such  estimate  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  coming  from 
a  scholar  who  is  regarded  as  doubting  the  existence  of  a 
God,  and  who  cannot  therefore  be  charged  as  biased  by 
religious  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  faith  which  he  dis- 
cerns to  have  been,  and  acknowledges  frankly  to  have 
been,  thus  signally  potent.  M.  Vacherot — for  it  is  to  him 
that  we  refer — ^has  in  glowing  utterances  presaged  and 
depicted  the  future  spread  of  democracy.  Writing  in 
the  days  of  Napoleon  III.,  he  presented  to  France  and 
to  Europe  our  own  people  as  the  truest  republic  then 
on  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  very  distinctly  does  he 
attribute  the  prosperity,  and  even  the  very  possibility 
of  the  existence,  of  free  institutions  amongst  us  to  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  upon  our  nation.  It  is  interesting, 
amid  the  acclaims  of  our  national  centenary,  thus  to  hear 
the  judgment  of  a  foreign  scholar,  not  a  believer — his  judg- 


10  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ment  upon  the  sources  of  our  strength  and  of  our  success, 
in  achieving  and  preserving  liberties,  that,  in  so  many 
other  lands  and  through  so  many  experiments  made 
in  former  ages,  have  speedily  or  ultimately  collapsed. 
Yet  this  same  eulogist  of  our  freedom  looks  forward  to 
a  time  when  our  Bible  shall  be  outgrown  and  superseded. 
From  a  foreigner  thus  free  from  patriotic  partialities  such 
as  an  American  might  feel,  and  chargeable  with  no 
traditional  or  professional  leanings  toward  the  gospel,  we 
may  accept  gratefully  so  strong  a  testimony  as  to  the 
high  power  of  the  Scriptures  on  national  well-being ; 
whilst  we  withhold  our  assent  from  his  auguries  as  to 
the  ultimate  displacement  of  the  volume  from  the  school, 
the  library,  and  the  sanctuary.  Admitting  his  analysis 
of  the  past,  we  fail  to  subscribe  to  his  omens  respecting 
the  future. 

The  book  which,  scepticism  itself  being  witness,  has 
thus  colored  the  history  of  our  race,  and  moulded  so 
visibly  and  so  happily  our  own  national  career,  is  a  vol- 
ume of  peculiar  structure.  It  has  an  Old  Testament  and 
a  NeAV.  Between  the  writing  of  the  last  portion  of  the 
older  part  and  the  composition  of  the  earliest  Gospel  in 
the  New,  Matthew's,  there  intervened  a  chasm  of  nearly 
four  centuries.  This  is  a  larger  interval  than  yawns  be- 
tween our  times  and  those  of  Christopher  Columbus. 
During  that  long  spasm  of  silence  from  Malachi  onward 
no  prophet  appeared  in  Israel.  Yet  writings  so  remote  in 
date  of  origin  and  in  the  circumstances  of  their  writers, 
the  two  Testaments,  one  of  them  closing  just  when  the 
Jew  had  emerged  from  his  captivity  to  the  Chaldean  and 


JOHN   THE    BAPTIST.  11 

the  Persian,  and  the  other,  the  New,  taking  up  the  inter- 
rupted strain  four  centuries  after,  when  the  Jew  had 
passed  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Roman  ;  the  book  in 
Hebrew,  whose  last  scribes  had  not  so  very  long  left 
Euphrates,  in  the  far  East,  where  their  harps  hung  on  its 
willows ;  and  the  book  in  the  Greek,  the  earliest  of  whose 
penmen  had  been  tax-gatherer  under  magistrates  who 
came  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  in  the  far  West, — these 
books,  so  dissevered  in  date  of  their  origin,  are  by  a 
divine  wisdom  wondrously  made  to  cohere  with  each 
other  in  the  closest  interdependence. 

Old  English  conveyancers,  in  preparing  the  record  of 
the  transfer  of  some  important  estate,  drew  up  two  copies 
of  the  same  deed  upon  the  opposite  ends  of  one  and  the 
same  parchment.  Then  the  scrivener's  knife  severed  the 
skin  into  two  separate  documents,  by  a  line  which  was 
jagged  like  the  teeth  of  a  saw,  or  undulating  like  the 
hollows  in  the  water  of  a  lake  rippling  before  the  breeze. 
The  old  name  "  Indenture "  survives  to  this  day  at  the 
head  of  our  deeds,  when  the  old  usage  of  actual  "dent- 
ing "  or  "  indenting  "  has  been  generally  abandoned.  One 
party,  the  original  grantor,  kept  the  one  copy ;  the  other, 
the  purchaser,  retained  the  counterpart.  Was  there  in 
after-times  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  document, 
antique  simplicity  soon  determined  the  doubt  by  laying 
the  two  indented  portions  of  the  one  original  vellum 
together.  If  tooth  met  tooth,  if  the  indenture  tallied 
without  shrinkage  and  without  overlapping,  there  was 
tangible,  visible  demonstration  of  the  original  unity. 
There  was  the  same  grain  in  the  skin,  and  there  was 


12  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

exact  coadaptation  in  the  line  of  severance.  The  inden- 
ture stamped  the  genuineness.  Now,  in  our  Bible,  the  Old 
and  the  New  are  not  bare  verbal  transcripts  the  one  of 
the  other  ;  but  the  saine  Divine  Author  who  furnished 
both  made  the  ancient  to  fit  as  by  a  line  indented  in 
divine  exactness  and  symmetry  into  the  New;  the  wave 
in  the  low  trough  of  it  upon  the  one  parchment  meeting 
another  wave  in  the  answering  crest  of  that  wave  as 
upon  the  other  parchment,  so  that  the  two  covenants 
thus  authenticated  showed  the  same  Supreme  Mind.  It 
was  a  Mind,  one  in  its  several  dispensations,  and  har- 
monious through  all  ages  of  the  world's  history.  Proph- 
ecy, or  "  history  in  anticipation,"  responds  to  history,  or 
prophecy  become  fact,  across  the  two  sides  of  a  vast 
chasm ;  just  as,  in  the  daj-s  of  Joshua,  Ebal  pealed  back 
to  Gerizim  and  Gerizim  pealed  back  to  Ebal  the  alternate 
snatches  of  the  same  law,  and  the  strophe  and  antistrophe 
swelled  up  together,  praising  the  same  Jehovah,  Leader 
of  their  exodus  and  Giver  of  all  their  victories.  Prom- 
ise, warning,  and  unfinished  history  upon  the  one  side, 
tallied  with  and  matched  fulfilment  and  retribution 
and  completed  history  on  the  other  side.  "  Comparing 
spiritual  things  with  spiritual "  is  the  apostle's  enuncia- 
tion, as  to  the  rule  of  successful  interpretation  laid  down 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Inspirer  of  the  entire  record. 
Collate  the  origins  with  the  results — lay  the  pledges  of 
Eden  and  Sinai  against  the  achievements  of  Bethlehem 
and  Calvary — and  see  illustrated,  as  over  the  stormy 
tides  of  human  commotion,  and  over  the  wide  chasms 
of  earthly  centuries,  the  unity  and  inflexibility  of  him 


JOHN    THE    BAPTIST.  13 

who  is  in  one  mind  and  none  can  turn  him,  the  Far- 
sighted  and  the  Infallible  Sovereign  who,  amid  the  heav- 
ings  of  primeval  chaos,  saw  distinctly  the  welterings  of  the 
final  conflagration  and  the  orderings  of  the  last  judgment. 
He,  in  this,  his  unity  of  purpose,  which  he  had  main- 
tained through  all  varieties  of  utterance,  and  all  relays 
of  successive  scribes,  and  all  mutations  in  the  outer  form 
of  his  providence,  had  indented  the  Old  Testament,  so 
that  it  required  and  necessitated  the  New;  and  then, 
resuming,  after  the  interval  of  a  dozen  generations  of 
mankind,  his  unwavering,  unforgetting  scheme,  he  had 
indented  the  New  Testament  to  supplement  and  to  verify 
and  to  perfect  the  Old  Testament. 

Now,  the  very  last  sentence  in  the  very  last  prophet  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  such  pendant  fringe  and  indenta- 
tion, awaiting  and  demanding  a  new  advent  and  a  novel 
herald,  who  shall  usher  in  the  steps  of  that  grand  and  yet 
dread  Visitant,  the  Hero  of  the  expected  advent.  "  Be- 
hold, I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  coming 
of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord:  and  he  shall 
turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart 
of  the  children  to  their  fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smite  the 
earth  with  a  curse."  For  four  centuries  had  that  banner 
of  the  long-expected  Forerunner  been  hung,  fluttering  over 
the  uttermost  edge  of  the  finished  Hebrew  canon.  The  Old 
Testament  had,  as  regards  the  same  harbinger,  still  earlier 
pendants  hanging  out.  Not  merely  four,  but  seven  cen- 
turies before,  the  day  that  Zechariah  received  the  promise 
of  a  son,  God  had,  by  Isaiah,  pledged  that  there  should  be 
lifted  up  the  "  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  "  and 


14  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

calling  men  to  "  j^repare  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Let  us  en- 
deavor, by  nearer  and  more  modern  measurements,  to  appre- 
ciate the  dignity  bestowed,  in  these  far-dated  promises,  upon 
John  the  Baptist,  by  those  prophecies  going  so  long  before 
his  birthday.  No  earthly  prince,  Plantagenet  or  Bourbon, 
ever  had  his  cradle  thus  foretold  for  hundreds  of  years. 
More  than  four  centuries  separate  us  in  our  age  from  the 
times  when  Columbus  turned  his  prow  toward  our  conti- 
nent. Supposing  that  God  had  by  divine  illumination 
prompted  the  Genoese  to  erect,  when  touching  the  rim  of 
this  western  continent,  a  tablet  describing  the  character 
and  mission  of  our  own  Washington,  how  would  the 
ancient  oracle  have  shed  a  new  and  dread  majesty  over 
the  career  of  him  who  led  our  fathers  to  freedom.  Such, 
and  even  larger,  was  the  interval  between  Malachi  and 
John  the  Baptist.  But  a  yet  broader  chasm  severed  John 
from  Isaiah :  this  was  a  span  of  more  than  seven  hundred 
years.  Let  us  look  back,  from  our  homes  and  sanctuaries, 
to  a  period  of  modern  history  seven  hundred  years  re- 
moved. We  reach  the  times,  in  British  and  Syrian  history, 
of  the  Crusades,  of  Saladin  the  brave  Saracen,  and  of 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  of  England ;  and  in  the  history 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people,  whose  blood  so  largely  makes 
our  national  life,  we  find  a  little  nearer  yet,  what  to  us 
ordinarily  looks  so  far,  the  days  of  John  and  of  the  Eng- 
lish barons  who  extorted  from  a  craven  and  heartless 
monarch  the  glorious  sanctions  of  Magna  Charta — a  doc- 
ument underlying  so  largely  our  ancestral  liberties  and 
laws.  That  was  not  full  seven  hundred  years  from  us. 
Suppose  that  when  Richard  fought  in  Palestine  or  John 


JOHN  THE   BAPTIST.  15 

surrendered  at  Runnymede  there  had  been  erected  a  me- 
morial, that  the  God  of  nations  intended  to  bring  about, 
in  the  far  West  and  among  a  new  people,  the  setting  up  of 
what  we  now  see,  a  home  of  welcome  for  the  exiles  of 
many  lands — a  banner  of  hope  for  the  rights  of  the  long 
oppressed — a  sanctuary  for  his  own  truth  and  his  own 
Zion  from  the  persecutions  that  hounded  both  in  the  old 
Europe  so  fiercely  and  so  long, — how  would  a  prophecy 
so  long  since  recorded,  and  after  the  weary  interval  of 
ages  so  strangely  and  exactly  fulfilled,  make  our  country 
all  the  dearer  and  the  holier — august,  ancient,  and  sacred? 
It  is  by  such  feeble  illustrations  from  our  own  modern 
times  that  we  can  understand  in  some  degree  the  peculiar 
honor  put  on  John  the  Baptist.  He  Avas  a  prophet  and — 
as  the  Master  whom  he  heralded  pronounced  —  "more 
than  a  prophet;"  for  no  seer  merely  human,  from  Enoch 
to  Samuel,  from  Samuel  to  Isaiah  or  Daniel  or  Habakkuk, 
had  thus,  four  centuries — ay,  seven  centuries — before  his 
cradle  swung,  been  the  subject  of  solemn  and  written  pre- 
dictions— predictions  registered  in  the  most  venerable  and 
sacred  annals  of  the  nation.  But  besides  these  there  Avere, 
as  to  his  great  Master  and  Lord,  pledges  running  back  to 
Eden,  when  the  serpent's  transitory  triumph  was,  as  God 
promised,  to  be  followed  by  the  birth  of  the  Seed  of  the 
woman,  crushing  the  head  of  the  tempter.  With  the 
history  of  man's  blight  was  intertwined  the  covenant  of 
God's  predestined  balm.  Abraham  was  to  have  not  only 
a  favored  nation  spring  from  him ;  but  in  him  all  nations, 
Gentile  as  well  as  Hebrew,  were  to  be  blessed.  David  was 
not  only  to  have  a  sure  throne,  but  ultimately  a  Divine 


16  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Progeny,  whose  should  be  an  immovable  kingdom. 
Hosea  told  of  a  time  when  Israel  should  have  neither 
priest,  ephod,  nor  temple,  nor  sacrifice.  Moses,  the  leader 
of  the  Exodus,  foretold  a  distress  for  Israel  when  the 
mother  should  in  famine  sacrifice  her  own  babe,  and  told 
also  of  a  prophet  like  unto  himself,  whom  Israel  was  to 
hear  as  reverently,  as  they  had  heard  him  when  yet  fresh 
from  the  glories  of  Sinai,  and  when  standing  at  the  foot 
of  the  cloudy  pillar  out  of  which  God's  own  voice  spake. 
Isaiah  told  of  the  Lord's  Servant  rejected,  yet  suffering  for 
the  sins  of  others  and  by  his  knowledge  justifying  many. 
Bethlehem,  the  place  of  his  birth ;  his  kingdom,  a  stone 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands  and  towering  to 
fill  the  earth  and  to  shatter  all  other  empire, — were  pre- 
dictions by  Micah  and  Daniel.  Upon  how  many  tags  and 
projecting  indentations  of  the  ancient  record,  had  God 
required  that  the  new  history  of  the  world,  as  his  Messiah 
should  shape  and  rule  tliat  history,  was  necessarily  to  fit, 
in  order  to  show  the  identity  of  the  authorsliip,  and  the 
eternal  symmetry  and  immutability  of  the  grand  scheme 
of  revelation  and  redemption. 

Thus  foreseen  and  indicated,  not  only  before  Herod  had 
commenced  his  restoration  of  the  existing  temple,  but 
before  the  heroic  strife  of  the  Maccabees  and  before  the 
persecutions  of  an  Antiochus,  and  before  even  an  Alexan- 
der had  led  Greece  over  so  wild  and  so  wide  a  career  of 
invasion  and  domination,  before  a  Cyrus  and  a  Nehemiah 
had  rebuilt  temple  and  city  from  desolation,  and  before 
even  a  Nebuchadnezzar  had  flung  down  fane  and  city  into 
the  desolation  whence  they  were  thus  restored,  anticipat- 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  17 

ing  the  national  ruin  and  the  national  recovery,— God  had 
put  upon  the  national  annals  his  pledges,  as  to  the  work 
which  John  should  do  and  as  to  the  scene  where  this  his 
servant  should  labor.  As  Isaac,  the  great  stock  of  the 
national  tree,  had  been  the  child  of  a  long-childless  home, 
born  to  a  sire  and  a  mother  of  great  age,  so  was  John 
born  to  Zachariah  and  to  his  wife  Elizabeth.  Not  only- 
had  Isaiah  and  Malachi  received  commission  to  predict 
of  the  harbinger:  but,  as  the  hour  neared,  an  angel. 
Gabriel,  came  down  to  announce  the  close  approach  of 
the  long-predicted  messenger  of  the  Messiah.  Although 
John  himself  wrought  no  miracle,  yet,  as  Hume  has  well 
said,  a  prophecy  is  itself  a  miracle.  A  prediction  pre- 
cise and  fixed,  promptly  and  literally  fulfilled,  of  what 
man  could  not  foresee,  of  what  man  unaided  could  not 
achieve,  is  a  miracle.  In  that  light,  the  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  and  Malachi  and  Gabriel,  culminating  upon  the 
head  of  the  babe  whom  Elizabeth  clasped  as  the  child  of 
her  old  age,  made  his  birth  in  itself  a  transcendent  mira- 
cle. Seven  centuries  before,  four  centuries  before,  and 
then,  but  in  the  very  year,  divine  oracles,  and  in  the  last 
date  an  angelic  messenger,  stamped  the  infant's  career  as 
one  on  which  the  eyes  of  Heaven  were  intently  fastened, 
and  to  which  were  summoned  the  eyes  of  God's  elect 
people,  not  only  in  their  native  Palestine,  but  through  all 
the  far  lands  of  the  Gentiles  into  which  exile  and  com- 
merce and  adventure  had  scattered  the  far-travelled 
Hebrew. 

His  childhood  and  youth  were   not  idle,  though  they 

were  comparatively  lonely.     He  was  in  the  deserts  until 
2*  B 


18  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  day  of  his  showing  unto  Israel.  Nurtured  in  soHtary 
communings  with  Scripture  and  with  nature,  and  with 
God,  the  Author  of  both,  he  was  of  hardy  frame  and 
schooled  in  self-denial,  simplicity,  and  endurance ;  his 
robe  was  of  camel's  hair;  and  his  diet  the  rudest  fare  of 
the  rude  wilderness,  "locusts  and  wild  honey."  But  a 
prophet  withal  is  he,  of  God's  own  rearing  and  God's 
own  prompting. 

Of  this  class  of  divine  ambassadors,  some  were  men 
whom  God  meant  to  make,  by  the  written  word,  teachers 
of  generations  long  after  their  own  time.  They  were  the 
prophets  of  the  pen.  Such  was  Isaiah,  and  such  proba- 
bly Habakkuk,  in  their  main  ministry  scribes  rather  than 
heralds.  For  others,  whom  their  Sender  intended  for 
direct  and  prompter  results,  and  that  the}^  should  arouse 
the  multitudes  of  their  contemporaries,  a  fitter  designation 
Avas  prophets  of  the  voice.  They  might  leave  little  of  a 
permanent  literature  of  their  own  composing,  but  they 
spoke  face  to  face  with  their  hearers,  and  lifting  up  their 
voice,  as  of  a  trumpet,  denounced  the  crying  sins  of  one 
age  and  announced  the  impending  woes  of  the  next  age. 
As  a  man  of  kindred  spirit,  in  Britain,  long  after,  said 
respecting  this  very  mode  of  rousing  and  mending 
society — it  is  John  Wycliff'e  that  we  quote — "  It  was  by 
preaching  that  he,  Christ,  conquered  the  world  out  of  the 
fiend's  hand."  And  as  Christ  himself,  the  Great  Teacher, 
left  no  writing;  his  forerunner  was  preacher,  not  writer;  a 
prophet,  not  of  the  pen,  but  a  prophet  of  the  voice.  But 
why  did  he  proclaim  his  message  in  the  wdlderness,  and 
not,  as  did  Jonah,  in  the  streets  and  squares  of  the  great 


JOHN   THE  BAPTIST.  19 

capitals,  amid  the  hungry  rabble  and  the  crowding 
traders  and  the  jostling  pilgrims  come  to  worship  ?  The 
wilderness  where  he  spoke,  Avas  not  utterly  desolate,  but 
only  sparsely  settled.  It  lay  in  the  line  of  travel  both 
for  traffickers  and  caravans  and  worshippers.  And  it 
allowed,  which  thronged  metropolitan  streets  did  not 
allow,  opportunities  for  leisurely  meditation.  The  atten- 
tion, fixed  on  solemn  themes,  might  be  held  there  till  it 
issued  in  right  action.  That  desert,  the  scene  of  Joshua's 
incursions  upon  the  Canaanites,  and  afterward  of  David's 
flights  and  raids  and  victories,  wath  two  seas,  the  great 
Mediterranean  on  the  west  and  the  Dead  Sea  on  the  east, 
the  last  sea  sad  and  dark  with  its  brooding  memories  of 
the  eternal  scar  which  God  had  in  his  anger  there  put  on 
his  own  chosen  land,  where  sin  had  been  especially  rife 
and  fierce,  with  Sinai  on  the  south,  and  Zion  and  Carmel 
and  Hermon  and  Lebanon  to  the  far  north, — how  did  the 
environment  lift  the  soul  out  of  its  ruts  and  summon  it 
to  solemn  reflection  on  death  and  eternity  and  the  inev- 
itable judgment? 

What  was  the  burden  ?  In  part,  of  the  Great  Stranger 
whose  goings  forth  were  from  everlasting,  and  who  was 
soon  to  make  in  lowliness  his  long-expected  appearance 
upon  earth.  That  advent  is  rushing  on.  He,  John,  the 
herald  of  it,  was  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord  and 
make  his  paths  straight.  A  nation  that  would  profit  by 
their  Messiah  must  put  away  its  idols.  In  part,  the 
prophet's  burden  was  to  turn  the  thoughts  of  his  hearers 
upon  themselves.  The  times  were  out  of  joint;  they 
needed   a   dire   and   deep   wrench  to  bring  them   back. 


20  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

They  were  called  to  repentance.  The  heart  of  the  fathers 
was  to  be  turned  to  their  children,  and  the  heart  of  the 
children  to  their  fjithers.  Some  read  one  of  these  phrases 
as  a  mere  repetition  of  the  other.  But,  in  Hebrew  paral- 
lelism, the  second  use  of  the  same  word  is  often  an  en- 
largement of  the  kindred  but  narrower  thought  contained 
in  the  first  use  of  the  term.  When  Christ  said,  "  Let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead,"  the  parallel  was  not  a  repetition. 
The  first  "dead"  meant  spiritually  dead — men  careless 
and  ignorant  of  God,  but  having  bodily  life ;  the  second 
"dead"  meant  those  who  had  lost  even  this,  and  the  new 
use  of  an  old  word  described  corporeal  death,  the  stiff 
form  of  an  earthly  kinsman,  out  of  whom  had  gone  the 
last  gasj)  and  sob  of  an  earthly  life.  So,  in  Malachi's 
phrase,  the  heart  of  fathers  turned  to  children  meant  a 
recovered  sense  in  the  fathers  of  that  generation  as  to 
their  own  social  duties  to  households,  to  their  own  off- 
spring, and  to  the  wives  and  mothers  in  whose  care  the 
common  progeny  were  especially  left.  As  Josephus,  their 
own  historian,  testifies,  it  was  to  Israel,  as  it  was  to  their 
Roman  masters  and  their  Greek  teachers,  a  time  of  great 
social  profligacy.  This  might  be  rectified.  When,  cen- 
turies after,  Rousseau  launched  the  volume  of  the  Socinl 
Contract,  as  he  called  it,  in  which  he  appealed  to  men, 
his  neighbors,  upon  the  rights  and  duties  of  society  as 
founded  upon  a  sort  of  mutual  bargain  and  compact,  he 
made  an  appeal  that,  as  all  thinkers  allow,  had  very 
much  to  do  in  bringing  on  the  great  French  Revolution. 
But  he,  as  a  writer,  had  his  heart  so  engrossed  wdth  his 
compatriots  and  fellow-citizens,  that  it  was  hardened  as  a 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  21 

father's  heart  against  his  own  children;  and  he,  the 
mender  of  the  ways  of  nations,  sent  the  offspring  of  his 
own  hfe  to  the  foundling  hospital  to  be  reared  or  to  be 
slain  by  strangers,  as  the  chance  might  be,  in  the  savage 
heedlessness  and  heartlessness  that  has  too  often  governed 
such  institutions.  John  the  Baptist  called  the  Elis  of  his 
age  not  to  overlook  their  Hophnis  and  their  Phinehases. 
He  would  not  have  a  David  even,  to  rear  by  slovenly  ten- 
derness and  criminal  indifference  Amnons  and  Absaloms 
for  mutual  hate  and  fratricide  and  parricide.  He  would 
carry  home,  as  did  Nathan  to  the  paramour  of  Bathsheba, 
God's  terrible  ban  against  household  sin. 

John  dealt  with  all  social  sins,  wrongs  of  the  rich  to 
the  poor,  wrongs  of  the  powerful  to  the  feeble,  and  again 
of  the  feeble  and  dependent,  in  their  envy  and  discontent 
toward  their  more  ojpulent  neighbors.  Publican  and  sol- 
dier, Pharisee  and  Sadducee,  all  were  summoned  to  re- 
pentance, each  of  his  class-sins  and  his  own  personal  mis- 
deeds. It  was  an  age  in  Rome  and  in  Csesarea  and  in 
Jerusalem  of  relaxed  social  ties.  He  preached  the  sanc- 
tity of  marriage.  The  Herodian  family  had  been  es- 
pecially reckless  in  this  matter.  Without  fear  and  with- 
out favor,  this  herald  of  God  came  out  of  the  desert  in 
prophet's  garb  and  with  primeval  sternness;  the  ascetic 
dares  to  put  down,  simply  and  rigorously,  the  require- 
ments of  the  law  of  Sinai,  unrepealed  and  irrepealable. 
To  Herod  he  said,  "  It  is  not  lawful  to  have  thy  brother's 
wife."  That  speech  bred  a  grudge  which  rankled  in  the 
heart  of  the  queen.  Thus  censured,  Herod  felt  reverence 
and  compunction,  but  anger  and  wounded  pride  as  well. 


22  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

But  as  we  said,  "  children  "  and  "  fathers  "  had,  by  the 
law  of  Scripture  parallelism,  yet  larger  meanings  in  the 
second  and  recurring  use  of  the  old  phrase.  The  most 
aged  of  John's  contemporaries  were,  by  descent  or  by 
intermarriage  and  adoption,  the  children  of  earlier  gen- 
erations. They  were  summoned  to  turn  back,  in  their 
estimates  of  duty  and  virtue  and  freedom  and  blessed- 
ness, to  the  ancestral  patterns  and  the  memories  of  the 
Exodus,  the  law-giving,  the  temple  songs  of  David  and 
the  temple  structure  of  Solomon,  and,  yet  behind  these 
even,  to  the  memory  of  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  faith- 
ful, and  of  Enoch,  who  walked  with  God.  A  nation  who 
aim  to  reform  their  households,  the  very  seed-plots  of 
national  order  and  freedom  and  unity,  must  cultivate  the 
memory  of  ancestral  glories  and  of  primitive  innocence. 
The  child  of  Adam  must  trace  back  his  pedigree  till  it 
ends  in  saying  that  he  is  the  handiwork,  the  child,  and 
the  servant  of  God.  He  may  not  forget,  much  less  abjure, 
his  Maker.  If  he  must  renounce  all  such  high  parentage, 
if  he  be  sprung  of  the  mollusk,  how  dare  he  devour,  in 
cannibal  greed,  his  ancestral  oyster  ?  If  the  ape  were  his 
sire,  will  he  lift  pistol  to  shoot  the  kinsman  chimpanzee, 
or  look  derisively  out  of  his  parlor  window,  in  unnatural 
contempt,  on  the  antics  of  a  poor  relative,  capering 
grotesquely  to  the  music  of  a  hand-organ  and  craving 
pennies  on  the  sidewalk?  Man,  to  be  free  and  true  and 
noble,  must  be  kindly  and  reverent,  and  begin  far  back  to 
make  a  genuine  progress  far  forward.  He  may  not  forget 
Eden,  and  the  Creator  who  placed  Adam  and  Eve  there. 
If  of  God's  making,  he  must  stoop  to  invite  and  accept 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  23 

God's  teaching  and  ruling.  The  great  social  problems  of 
John's  day  and  of  our  day  must,  to  be  rightfully  solved, 
carry  back  the  hearts  of  us,  their  children,  to  our  remotest 
forefathers;  and  back  of  all  ages,  geological  and  astro- 
nomical, show  us  our  origins.  Woe  worth  the  race  if. 
in  their  science  and  their  greed,  they  find  no  Maker  and 
Heavenly  Father  at  the  head  of  the  ladder  along  which 
they  patiently  or  impatiently  clamber,  or  down  which 
they  swing  to  find  the  worm  and  the  protoplasm  as  their 
first  parents  at  the  bottom  of  the  deep  abysm ! 

John  came,  and  Elijah,  not,  as  the  Jews  of  his  day  many 
of  them   ignorantly  interpreted   it,  a   transmigration— a 
return  of  the  old  prophet,  who  had  worried  Ahab's  court 
and  wrung  Jezebel's  heart,  in  his  actual  personalty.    That 
actual  personage  did  come  down  to  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration  with   Moses— the    one   the   receiver    and   the 
other  the  restorer  of  the  law— to  glorify  Christ.     This 
identity  with  Elijah  John  denied.     He  revived  no  wild 
Oriental  fable  of  transmigration ;  Elijah's  self  he  was  not. 
But  as  Christ  explained  it,  he  was  Elijah  in  reproduced 
temper  and  in  the  reduplication  of  the  old  seer's  fearless 
simplicity  and  rugged  energy,  just  as  Jefferson  said  of 
Nathaniel  Macon,  one  of  our  own  early  Baptists,  a  states- 
man of  his  own   party,  that  he  was   "the  last  of  the 
Romans,"  not  meaning  that  he,  Macon,  had  Latin  blood 
in  his  veins,  or  could,  perchance,  have  held  a  Latin  dia- 
logue with  an   old   Roman  Brutus   or  Cicero  had  they 
returned  to  the  earth,  but  that,  in  his  antique  sternness 
and  dignity  of  character,  he  recalled  the  Cato  and  the 
Camillus,  sturdy   and    upright  men,    who    stood   when 


24  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

others  wilted  and  crawled.  Yet  John  was  not  a  courtier 
wearing  soft  robes  and  sharing  dainty  meals.  These  were 
to  be  found  in  kings'  houses.  But  in  the  desert  was  fitter 
haunt  for  a  prophet  and  a  seer  of  the  old  heroic  and  saintly 
mould  of  an  Elijah,  such  as  Avas  John  the  Baptist.  Thus 
was  John  an  Elias  in  his  mood  and  bearing.  His  genera- 
tion had  revered  him  as  a  prophet.  Did  he  reciprocate 
the  reverence  paid  him  by  courting  and  guarding  popu- 
larity; and  thus  fear  man  ?  No.  The  Herod  who  sold  him 
to  death  feared  the  chief  estates  of  Galilee,  who  had  heard 
his  rash  promises,  and  feared  the  scorn  of  the  damsel  who 
had  danced  with  such  dazzling  gracefulness,  and  feared 
the  imperious  Herodias,  whose  affection  had  been  the 
blight  of  his  own  household  and  palace.  And  when  the 
poor  homeless  prophet  quailed  not,  true  as  steel  and  un- 
appeasable as  conscience ;  on  the  other  hand  this  jDrince, 
amid  S23lendor  and  wealth  and  courtiers  and  soldiery, 
poor  weakling  as  he  Avas,  feared,  wavered,  and  broke 
down,  and  gave  God's  ambassador  to  a  sudden  and  igno- 
minious death.  A  craven  may  head  armies  and  wield 
richest  exchequers;  and  the  martyr,  who  finds  but  the 
fare  and  garb  and  death  of  a  Lazarus,  may  out-face  and 
out-brave  and  out-live  the  despot  that  dooms  him.  As 
said  the  French  Jansenist  poet,  Racine,  long  after,  "  Fear 
God,  and  fear  none  else."     Thus  did  John. 

But  if  God's  appointed  and  long-predicted  precursor,  to 
besom  the  pathway  for  God's  own  only  begotten  Son,  why 
is  he,  the  man  of  Elijah's  mould,  not  blessed  in  his  de- 
parture from  earth  with  such  a  heavenward  wafting  as 
Elijah  received,  and  as   had   in  antediluvian  days  been 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  25 

accorded  to  Enoch,  walking  with  God,  and  then  missed 
of  men,  for  God  had  taken  him?    Had  not  this  son  of 
Zacharias  earned  such  fiery  chariot  and  angelic  escorts, 
bearing  him   to  the    Father's  welcome   on  high?     No. 
The  higher  dispensation  needed  to  begin  in  a  lower  hu- 
miliation.    It  was  enough  that  the  disciple  should  be  as 
his  Lord.    He  had  preached  repentance  and  the  remission 
of  sms.    How  the  last  was  to  come— a  true  and  large 
remission  of  sins— how  the  penitents  whom  he  charged 
home  with  guilt,  and  summoned  to  an  immediate  and 
utter  change,  were  to  be  pardoned  and  to  receive  absolu- 
tion from  their  sins,  he  had  intimated  rather  than  plainly 
expounded  when  he  pointed  to  the  greater  Prophet  out  of 
Nazareth.    Was  it  with  an  allusion  to  the  Passover  victim, 
whose  blood  sprinkled  on  each  returning  year  the  door- 
posts of  each  Hebrew  dwelling  and  recalled  the  dread 
night  in  Egypt  when  the  angel  of  vengeance  slew  each 
first-born  of  the  Egyptian  homes,  but  spared  and  passed 
over  the  gore-bedabbled  doors  of  their  Hebrew  bondsmen? 
Or  was  it  also  a  reference  to  the  daily  oblation,  yet  nearer 
and  more  frequent,  of  the  lambs  presented  in  the  temple 
in  each  day's  sacrifices?    John  said,  in  one  or  both  of 
these  aspects,  turning  to  his  kinsman  Saviour,  "Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world !" 
By  abnegation   and   suffering,  by  the   ignominious   and 
agonizing  sacrifice  on  Calvary,  that  great  Prince  was  to 
become  the  Pedeemer  of  the  world.     If  the  faith  of  the 
forerunner  had  for  the  time  faltered  in  his  own  dungeon, 
or  if,  perchance,  he  sought  only  to  reinforce,  by  personal 
conference  with  Christ,  the  faith  of  the  disciples  whom  he 


26  LECTUEE8  ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

had  sent  on  this  message, — John  had  asked,  "Art  thou  he 
that  should  come,  or  look  we  for  another?" — simply  and 
sublimely  had  the  Christ  responded,  "  Blessed  is  he  who- 
soever shall  not  be  offended  in  me."  The  disciple  who 
accepts  meekly  the  Master's  cross  and  who  prefigures 
right  loyally  and  right  fearlessly  the  Master's  tremendous 
and  incommunicable  agonies  is  "  not  offended."  In  an 
early  day,  Elijah's  chariot;  in  the  day  of  Christ's  ap- 
proaching slaughter,  the  headsman's  block  and  the  heads- 
man's descending  sword,  are  a  grander  chariot  for  the 
second  Elijah,  putting  him  yet  closer  to  his  Prince.  In 
the  path  of  lowliness  and  loneliness  and  resolute  endur- 
ance to  the  end,  John  was  thus  honored  to  win  a  liigher 
distinction  even  than  had  been  accorded  to  his  great  pro- 
totype and  model,  Elijah.  On  Carmel  that  stalwart  and 
older  servant  had  said,  "  If  the  Lord  God  be  God,  follow 
him ;"  and  Israel  had  exclaimed,  "  The  Lord,  he  is  the 
God."  In  the  low  dungeon  of  Machserus,  when  the  har- 
binger bowed  his  neck  to  the  flashing  falchion  that  the 
daughter  of  Herodias  and  the  craven  fear  of  Herod  had 
sent  against  him,  the  later  prophet  had  virtually  pro- 
claimed again,  " '  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  him.'  And 
follow  him  will  I,  though  it  be  to  a  culprit's  death  and 
with  the  dunghill  of  a  L.izarus  awaiting  my  headless 
corpse."  And  he  who  afterward  promised  to  the  penitent 
thief  beside  his  own  cross  a  remembrance  in  his,  the  Mes- 
siah's kingdom,  had  not  overlooked,  we  may  well  believe, 
the  welcome  and  the  jjlace  of  honor  in  that  same  kingdoin 
for  his  fellow-sufferer  and  for  his  precursor,  John  the 
Baptist.     And  turning  to  the  blended  histories  of  both 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  27 

servant  and  Lord,  we  the  Christians  of  so  many  lands  and 
so  many  centuries  justify  and  congratulate  the  servant  in 
his  meek  trust,  and  we  magnify  and  confide  in  the  Master  in 
his  unparalleled  oblation,  and  we,  too,  take  up  the  outcry 
at  the  foot  of  Carmel,  "  The  Lord,  he  is  the  God."  Yea, 
verily,  then ;  yea,  verily,  now ;  yea,  verily,  for  evermore. 
And  the  deeper  his  humiliation,  all  the  loftier  is  his  love, 
and  all  the  surer  the  final  victories  and  the  compensatory 
glories  of  all  the  martyr-train  who  have  preceded  him  or 
followed  him  to  the  sacrifice.  The  love,  stronger  than 
death,  is  glorified  by  death,  as  his  saints  confront  and 
defy  that  terror. 

As  an  expression  of  the  repentance  that  he  preached, 
John  administered  baptism  in  Jordan.  Was  it  before 
known  to  the  Jews?  Scholars  have  been  divided  as  to 
this.  We  think  the  weight  of  evidence  to  be  that  Jewish 
proselyte  baptism  was  unknown  before  John's  time.  That 
it  was  before  unknown  seems  implied  also  in  the  question 
from  Jerusalem  brought  to  him :  "  If  not  the  Messiah, 
wherefore  baptizest  thou  then?"  He  pointed  to  it,  as 
commanded  him  by  the  Jehovah  who  had  trained  him 
for  his  work  and  now  launched  him  upon  his  mission — 
the  Jonah  of  a  spiritual  Nineveh  and  the  Daniel  to  a  race 
in  spiritual  captivity.  When  Christ,  manifested  as  such 
by  the  same  Heavenly  Power  that  had  sent  the  forerunner, 
applied  also  for  baptism,  John  declined  it,  as  if  to  admin- 
ister it  would  imply  inferiority  on  the  part  of  the  recip- 
ient of  the  rite  to  himself,  the  administrator.  Christ 
insisted  on  it  as  needed  "  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  It 
did  not  bespeak  repentance  as  needed  by  him,  but  it 


28  LECTURES  ON  BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

bespoke  the  perfect  righteousness  with  which  his  volun- 
tary humiliation  was  accepted  and  proclaimed — how  he, 
the  Prince,  honored  his  servitor  and  that  servitor's  loyal 
proclamation  and  that  servitor's  legitimate  ordinance. 

But  to  the  rest  of  its  recipients  John  professed  to  give 
it  as  a  baptism  of  the  penitent  acknowledging  unworthi- 
ness  and  renouncing  his  sin ;  not  as  though  due  to  them 
as  a  race,  for  he  said  to  men  of  warring  creeds  but  a  com- 
mon Hebrew  nationality — to  the  Pharisee,  who  so  accu- 
mulated and  magnified  tradition,  and  to  the  Sadducee, 
who  rejected  all  tradition,  and  even  exscinded  much 
also  of  sacred  Scripture ;  to  the  easy-going  liberalist  and 
rationalist  on  the  one  side  and  to  the  strict  and  bigoted 
ritualist  and  traditionalist  on  the  other  side — Alike  you 
need  a  change  of  nature.  The  Abrahamic  covenant  will 
not  lift  you  into  the  kingdom  of  Abraham's  God.  "  Gen- 
eration of  vipers,"  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance — 
a  change  you  need  that  shall  be  thorough  and  radical. 
The  axe,  brandished  in  rightful  severity,  has  not  yet 
felled  the  tree  which  it  threatens,  but  its  keen,  bright 
edge  lies  against  the  root  of  the  tree.  All  national  calam- 
ities and  household  sorrows  are  but  the  chippings  and 
blazings  of  that  "two-handed  engine"  which  lies  ready  to 
smite  once,  and  smiting  once  needs  smite  no  more.  And 
barrenness,  if  inveterate,  is  the  seal  of  the  inevitable  burn- 
ing. I,  John,  demand  the  repentance.  It  is  the  prerog- 
ative of  another,  now  on  his  way,  to  give  repentance  and 
the  remission  of  sins.  I  baptize  you  with  water ;  but  he 
gives  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  creative  and  re- 
newing.   And  if  opportunity  be  wasted  and  warning  be 


JOHN  THE   BAPTIST.  29 

spurned,  then  he  sends  the  deluge  of  fire.    The  fruitless 
tree  goes  to  the  furnace. 

Some  scholars,  and  not  of  our  own  denominational 
affinities,  have  supposed  that  in  pagan  mysteries,  eagerly 
sought  and  long  and  widely  practiced,  a  purification  by 
water  and  by  blood  had  become  familiarly  known,  as  the 
emblem  of  a  great  change  in  character  and  soul  and  pur- 
pose, before  John's  age.  Moses  had  found  the  ark  in  the 
pagan  Egyptian  ritual  far  more  ancient  than  the  day  of 
his  own  adoption  by  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  He  had 
continued  this  emblem  in  the  Jewish  economy,  not  as  the 
loan  of  paganism,  but  as  a  memorial  of  patriarchalism, 
which  paganism  had  borrowed  and  perverted,  and  which 
he  rightfully  reclaimed.  Men  like  Melchizedec  and  like 
Job  had  preserved  much,  in  Gentile  lands  and  lineages, 
of  patriarchal  truth  and  history.  The  ark  among  such  a 
people  had  been  the  emblem  of  the  escape  of  the  world's 
grey  fathers,  sons  of  Noah,  in  the  days  of  the  Deluge.  It 
was  a  memorial  of  God-planned  and  God-wrought  deliv- 
erance, of  a  provision  of  the  divine  grace  riding  triumph- 
ant over  the  wreck  of  a  world  weltering  under  the  floods 
of  a  divine  wrath.  And  as  Moses  honored  the  fragments 
of  a  patriarchal  faith  in  transmitting  and  consecrating  the 
Gentile  ark,  so  might  John,  divinely  taught,  accept  and 
reinaugurate  the  emblems  of  supernatural  lustration  in 
the  old  Gentile  mysteries.  If  Satan,  "  the  ape  of  God," 
as  an  old  Father  so  justly  called  him,  had  used  these  frag- 
ments and  splinters  of  the  shattered  old  faith  of  the  patri- 
archs for  many  most  crafty  and  wicked  purposes,  God 

might  snatch  his  own  truths  out  of  the  gripe  of  the  great 
3  * 


30  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

counterfeiter,  and  vindicate  and  re-establish  in  their 
primitive  and  celestial  majesty  the  great,  the  primitive 
verities,  that  a  flood  of  the  divine  wrath  threatened  an 
apostate  and  revolted  race,  that,  even  as  an  incensed  ven- 
geance of  Heaven  against  earth  had  once  poured  Noah's 
flood,  so  was  it  now  about  to  send  its  second  and  more 
dread  instalment,  the  world's  final  deluge  of  fire.  Mean- 
while, as  mercy  framed  the  ark  of  Noah  to  ride  the  first 
deluge,  so  in  the  ark  of  Moses  was  seen  the  mercy-seat, 
the  throne  of  the  divine  benignity,  set  over  the  tablets  of 
the  law,  the  embodmient  of  divine  justice.  And  so  in 
baptism,  the  penitent  acknowledging  that  justice  had 
rightfully  let  loose  its  flood  of  wrath,  might  yet  hope  and 
plead  that  mercy  could  now  rejoice  against  judgment. 
For  Christ  was  to  die,  the  Lamb  of  God,  taking  away  the 
sin  of  the  world,  by  death  foiling  and  spoiling  him  that 
had  the  power  of  death ;  and  now  by  heralds  and  ordi- 
nances proclaiming  hope  for  the  lost,  and  pardon  for  the 
guilty,  and  the  return  of  the  exile,  and  the  welcome  of 
the  prodigal.  A  repentance  that  wrenched  itself  loose 
from  the  old  idols;  a  contrition  that  acknowledged  the 
breadth  of  the  law  and  the  depth  of  man's  despair  as  to 
any  right  of  his  own ;  and  a  trust  that  clasped  in  the  God- 
given  atonement  its  one  and  its  sufficient  hope,  and  a 
filial  appeal  that  implored  passionately  the  divine  Spirit, 
freely  promised  and  graciously  outpoured, — such  repent- 
ance, such  contrition,  such  trust,  such  filial  rush  of  a  soul 
in  its  despair,  "  one  alone  to  the  only  One,"  as  an  old 
philosopher  phrased  the  soul's  turning  desolately  to  God, — 
all  these  feelings   found    striking  expression   when  the 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  31 

floods  met  over  the  bowed  head  of  the  disciple,  whether 
that  head  so  descended  beneath  the  waters  under  the 
hand  of  the  forerunner  John  or  under  the  hand  of  the 
apostle.  The  proselyte  thus  and  there  stooped  to  the 
death  of  the  old,  and  accepted  in  tears  of  glad  faith  the 
birth  of  the  new — a  new  MavSter,  a  new  life  of  service 
under  the  cross  upon  the  earth,  and  a  new  life  of  unutter- 
able joy  through  that  Redeemer's  resurrection,  ascension, 
and  mediation  at  the  right  hand  of  his  Father — his  Father 
and  ours — in  the  world  of  higher  gladness  and  fuller 
union,  where  patriarch  and  harbinger,  and  apostle  and 
prophet,  martyr  and  confessor,  sit  down  together  in  the 
presence  of  him  who,  as  the  Lamb,  is  alike  the  Temple  and 
the  Sun  of  his  New  Jerusalem  beyond  these  terrestrial 
scenes. 

And  both  John  the  harbinger,  servant  of  our  Lord,  and 
the  Christ,  John's  Divine  Master — each  of  them  a  prophet 
of  the  Voice — yet  bid  us  alike  not  to  neglect,  but  to  pon- 
der, the  sayings  of  the  prophets  of  the  Pen.  The  fore- 
runner appealed  to  the  oracles  penned  by  Isaiah  and  to 
the  histories  preserved  by  Abraham.  His  Divine  Follower 
and  Prince  said,  "  Search  the  Scriptures ;  they  testify  of 
me."  Some  would  claim  great  and  paramount  value  for 
the  voice  of  tradition,  apart  from  the  inspired  and  written 
Bible.  The  history  of  the  churches  and  the  nations,  in 
the  very  case  of  John  himself,  illustrates  significantly  the 
snares  and  perils  of  such  unwritten  memory,  enhance- 
ment, transfiguration,  and  distortion  of  the  old  utterances. 
In  apostolic  times,  the  beloved  apostle,  John,  namesake 
of  the  harbinger,  records — but  whilst  recording  discoun- 


32  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

tenances — the  tradition  then  current  of  himself,  that  he, 
the  son  of  Zebedee,  was  to  survive  in  the  body  on  the 
earth  until  the  return  of  our  Lord  in  his  second  advent. 
It  is  an  early  tradition,  and,  in  an  apostolical  age  even, 
many  credited  the  tradition ;  but,  as  an  apostolical  hand 
testifies,  old  as  was  its  date  and  Avide  as  was  its  cur- 
rency, it  was  a  departure  from  the  Master's  actual  words, 
and  so  was  a  figment.    So,  in  the  case  of  our  theme,  John, 
the  son  of  Zacharias,  the  Lord's  harbinger,  has  had  for 
many  j'^ears,  and  centuries  even,  a  set  of  professed  disciples, 
who,  on  the  base  of  their  own  traditions,  have  called  them- 
selves disciples  of  John,  and  were  known,  to  a  recent  time, 
as  Zabians,  but  whose  faith  is  really  without  a  gospel  and 
without  a  Christ.   Tradition  really  floated  them  away  from 
John  and  Christ.    His  real  genuine  disciples  were  content 
with  their  teacher's  testimony,  that  he  must  decrease  and 
his  Lord  increase ;  and  like  Peter  and  James  and  John, 
they  left  the  harbinger,  in  order  to  swell  the  train  of  the 
Prince.     Others  of  them,  when  Herodias  had  secured  the 
martyrdom  of  their  beloved  instructor,  buried  the  corpse 
and  went  and  told  Jesus.     That  Saviour  testified  that 
never  had  there  been  a  greater  prophet  than  was  this,  his 
own  loyal  forerunner ;  but  he  added,  "  He  that  is  least  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  he."     Just  as  the 
flagman,  bccaring  his  red  pennon  in  front  of  a  railway 
train  through  one  of  our  city  streets,  carries  not  one  of  the 
passengers  or  an  ounce  of  the  freight  which  the  engine 
and  cars  have  undertaken  to  transport.     He  is  not  in  the 
line  which  they  keep.    His  movement  is  on  the  feet  of  the 
steed  which  he  backs ;  theirs  is  by  wheels  and  cogs  and 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  33 

steam  upon  the  rail.  Yet  the  distinctness  of  the  work 
does  not  argue  the  uselessness  of  the  preliminary  service. 
The  last  poor  convert  from  heathenism  that,  on  the  faith 
of  Christ's  gospel,  moved  yesterday,  under  the  Mas- 
ter's welcome,  into  the  Master's  heavenly  kingdom,  was 
^^  greater  ^^  while  here  in  the  body,  in  privileges,  in  the  full 
amount  of  insight,  and  the  clear  foundations  of  hope 
given  by  a  finished  gospel,  than  the  son  of  Zachariah, 
living  in  a  less  enlightened  stage  of  God's  revelations. 
But  he  was  not  ^' greater ^^  in  holiness  or  ^^ greater"  in  his 
heavenly  recompense  than  the  illustrious  harbinger. 
When  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  patriot  and  orator,  came 
to  these  shores,  he  was,  in  national  privileges,  outranked 
here  by  the  ragged,  unkempt,  and  untaught  newsboy 
who  jostled  through  the  skirts  of  the  pageants,  and  who 
was  an  American,  whilst  the  illustrious  visitor  was  an 
alien.  In  this  sense  the  inferior  in  endowment  and  in- 
trinsic worth  and  in  enduring  fame  was  yet  the  greater  in 
immediate  privileges  and  native  citizenship.  Such  we 
suppose  the  force  of  "  greater "  in  our  Lord's  use  of  the 
word  regarding  his  herald  and  loyal  martyr.  He  was 
outranked,  in  immediate  privileges  and  in  earthly  instruc- 
tions enjoj^ed  whilst  he  was  yet  in  the  body,  by  multi- 
tudes of  Christ's  simple  followers,  Avho  yet,  in  the  world 
of  greater  elevation  and  fuller  vision,  acknowledged  them- 
selves far  outranked,  in  grace  and  in  reward  and  in  mas- 
siveness  of  services,  by  the  illustrious  prophet  whom  a 
dance  bought  for  the  shambles,  in  order  to  fatten  the 
grudge  of  a  heartless  adulteress,  and  to  seal  the  craven 
weakness  and  the   final   perdition  of  the   poor  kingling 


34  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

who  played  a  more  modern  and  meaner  Aliab  toward 
his  truculent  and  glittering  Jezebel. 

Now,  the  existence  of  such  misguided  believers  in  tra- 
dition as  the  Zabians,  that  call  themselves  by  the  name 
of  a  prophet  who  would  impatiently  disavow  and 
denounce  them,  is  not  the  whole  lesson  against  that  error 
furnished  by  the  story  of  John.  A  Scottish  historian, 
Burton,  not  wanting  in  research  or  in  acuteness,  records  it 
in  the  first  volume  of  his  work  on  the  annals  of  his 
nation,  that  there  are,  in  the  different  portions  of  Chris- 
tendom, not  less  than  eighteen  heads  of  John  the  Baptist 
presented  as  inviting  tlie  reverence  of  the  faithful.  For 
each,  tradition  would  lift  up  its  testimony.  Certainly 
there  is  little  reason  to  believe  in  its  asseveration  as  to 
any  one  of  the  honored  relics.  But  if,  to  preserve  unim- 
peached  the  honors  claimed  for  an  ancient  and  far-descend- 
ed tradition,  we  accord  equal  honors  to  the  entire  num- 
ber, in  what  a  condition  must  the  morning  of  the  resur- 
rection place  Christ's  harbinger.  If  he  accept  all,  he  will 
be  more  than  rival  to  the  Cerberus  of  pagan  mythology ; 
and  will  he  not  rank  with  Kalee,  the  popular  goddess  of 
Hindustan,  who  appears  before  her  frenzied  devotees  with 
a  necklace  of  human  skulls  swinging  down  to  her  girdle? 

No.  He  who  with  such  resolute  sternness  besomed 
away  the  ecclesiastical  tradition  of  the  Pharisee,  and  the 
rationalistic  tradition  of  the  Sadducee,  uplifts  for  himself 
as  out  of  his  grave,  with  force  all  the  stronger  from  these 
vagaries  of  human  fancy  and  these  wild  contradictory 
legends  of  ecclesiastical  tradition,  the  old  and  blessed 
memorial,   "  It   is  written."      Not  "  It    is  currently  re- 


JOHN   THE   BAPTIST.  35 

ported,"  "  It  is  very  Avidely  believed,"  but,  "  It  is  written ;" 
and  a  louder  and  more  august  Speaker  takes  up  the 
herald's  unfinished  testimony,  and  his  outgiving  is  this : 
"  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  one  jot  or  one 
tittle  of  my  word  shall  not  pass  away."  It  is  the  utter- 
ance of  him  who  was  Builder  of  both  heaven  and  earth, 
and  knows  the  exact  number  of  all  their  constituent  atoms, 
and  the  full  date,  precise  to  a  moment,  for  their  continu- 
ance and  for  their  removal.  It  is  the  utterance  of  him 
who,  as  he  is  the  Theme,  so  he  is  the  Prompter,  of  all 
Scripture ;  whose  blood  bought  us  all ;  whose  grace  invites 
us  all;  whose  word  warns  us  all;  whom  John,  having 
worthily  served  on  the  earth,  serves  now  more  earnestly 
and  loves  yet  more  reverently  in  the  upper  worlds  of  light 
to  which  his  testimony  and  his  example  point  us,  that 
through  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  saints  we  too  may 
endure  and  overcome  and  attain.  Thanks  be  unto  God, 
who  gave  him  the  victory;  and  who  will  to  us  give,  if 
we  look  to  the  Lamb  whom  he  heralded,  the  sight  of 
that  common  glory  and  a  share  for  ever  in  all  that 
unspeakable  blessedness. 

John  the  Baptist  closes  the  Old  Testament  and  opens 
the  New.  Christ,  his  Lord  and  our  Lord,  both  begins  the 
Old  and  rounds  and  shuts  the  New.  The  promised  Seed 
of  the  woman  in  Eden  just  when  sin  entered  it,  he  is 
the  Light  of  the  world  and  the  Opener  of  that  New 
Jerusalem  into  which  sin  shall  find  no  entrance,  sealing 
to  his  church  a  Paradise  regained  which  shall  never  be 
forfeited;  and  as  out  of  its  gates  he  proclaims,  "Whoso- 


36  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

ever  will,  let  him  come  and  take  of  the  water  of  life 
freely."  And  from  the  harbingers  and  from  the  followers, 
the  saints  of  all  ages  and  all  dispensations,  comes  the 
thunder  of  that  one  acclaim,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God 
that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 


II. 
THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD 

AS    SET    UP    BY    OHEIST. 

4 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD 

AS    SET    UP    BY    OIIRIST. 


The  time  of  our  Lord's  appearance  in  the  world  was 
one  of  general  suspense,  of  widespread  and  intense  ex- 
pectation. Caesar,  in  the  person  of  Julius,  the  greatest  of 
the  name,  had  laid  the  foundations  of  an  empire  wider 
than  Alexander's.  Augustus,  retaining  cautiously  the 
names  and  shows  of  the  old  republic,  had  given  that  im- 
perial power  inherited  from  his  uncle  the  unity  and  con- 
solidation and  energy  of  an  absolute  despotism,  varnished 
over  with  the  memories  and  titles  of  a  patrician  aristoc- 
racy and  of  a  plebeian  democracy,  which,  though  wearing 
their  old  titles  and  flaunting  their  old  badges,  did — more 
meekly  than  begrudgingly — their  stipulated  service  in  the 
pay  and  under  the  banners  of  a  virtual  autocrat.  Old 
and  independent  kingdoms  had  become  dependencies  of 
this  central  empire.  Peace  had  in  a  certain  sense  been 
secured,  and  tlie  temple  of  Janus,  at  the  capital,  had  its 
gates  closed — a  token  of  the  rare  event.  But  what  was 
to  be  the  result  of  the  general  submission  when  now  no 
power,  however  remote,  sturdy,  or  barbarous,  seemed  able 
to  make  head  against  the  invincible  legions  of  Rome? 
Was  it  the  repose  of  a  new  and  riper  order,  or  the  stagna- 

39 


40  LECTURES   ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

tion  and  decay  of  a  confessed  imbecility  and  despair? 
Did  it  pledge  the  harvesting  of  a  fresher  life,  or  was  it  the 
torpor  of  corruption  creeping  into  the  vitals  of  the  state 
and  suffusing  the  nations  with  death  ? 

How  magnificent  was  the  sweep  of  that  Roman  Empire, 
and  over  its  broad  domains  with  what  a  lordly  supremacy 
did  it  set  up  and  did  it  put  down.  A  living  English  jurist, 
of  high  reputation  and  wide  experience  both  in  the  East- 
ern colonies  and  home-schools  of  Britain,  speaks,  in  his 
lectures  on  law,  as  if  not  loth  to  acknowledge  the  lights 
thrown  on  the  histor}''  of  civilization  by  the  pages  of  scrip- 
tural prophecy.  Sir  Henr}'^  Maine  mentions  the  Roman 
Empire  as  accurately  described  in  the  prophecy  of  Daniel : 
"  It  devoured,  broke  in  pieces,  and  stamped  the  residue 
with  its  feet."  Its  influence  was  marked,  says  the  same 
writer,  "by  the  comminution  which  it  effected."  "The 
Roman  Commonwealth  from  very  early  times  was  distin- 
guished from  all  other  dominions  and  powers  in  that  it 
broke  up  more  thoroughl}^  that  which  it  devoured."  Was 
it  in  its  tremendous  work  of  trituration  prepared  to  give 
the  unity  and  compactness  of  a  new  life,  a  legal  symme- 
try, and  a  moral  soundness  to  the  peoples  and  tongues 
and  societies  which  it  thus  ground  into  a  compulsory 
assimilation  ? 

The  first  Napoleon,  with  that  massiveness  of  thought 
which  distinguished  some  of  his  utterances,  spoke  of  the 
Mediterranean  as  fitted,  and  as  he  hoped  destined,  to  be- 
come a  "  French  lake."  Thoroughly,  it  seemed  in  the 
days  of  our  Lord's  advent,  had  the  old  Roman  imperial- 
ism made  this  great  inland  sea  to  become  merely  a  Latin 


THE   KI^TGDOM   OF   GOD   AS   SET    UP   BY   CHRIST.      41 

lake.  The  histories,  the  religions,  the  literatures,  the  arts, 
the  commerce,  and  the  navigation  of  all  precedent  ages 
had  to  a  great  extent  gathered  around  its  shores,  its  isles, 
and  its  havens.  Just  as  in  the  huge  amphitheatres  which 
antiquity  knew  so  well  how  to  construct,  tier  rising  on  tier 
till  the  population  of  a  whole  city  might  find  room  on  the 
benches,  and  thence  might  look  down  on  the  centre,  which, 
by  waters  let  in,  was  often  made  into  a  lake  and  the  scene 
of  a  great  mimic  sea-fight, — so,  as  over  a  grander  amphithe- 
atre, did  the  empire  survey  that  great  inner  sea  washing  so 
many  lands.  Over  that  old  sea  had  scudded  the  builders 
of  the  Pyramids  and  the  lords  of  old  Etruscan  soil  — 
merchant-sails  of  Sidon,  Tyrian  fleets,  and  Carthaginian 
traders;  the  vessels  of  the  old  Argonaut  in  quest  of  the 
Golden  Fleece;  the  pirate-keels  of  early  Greece;  the  be- 
siegers of  Troy;  the  prows  of  republican  Greece  that  won 
the  battle  of  Salamis;  Egyptian  galleys;  the  ships  of  Tar- 
shish;  the  keels  of  Alexander;  and  the  Romans  that  won 
the  great  sea-fight  of  Actium.  That  old  sea,  upon  whose 
blue  waters  looked  down  so  many  centuries  and  so  many 
nationalities  and  kindreds  and  languages,  imperial  Rome, 
we  say,  seemed  to  have  made  her  own  home-preserve 
but  a  grander  amphitheatre  for  the  display  of  her  vast 
resources  and  energies.  From  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  on 
the  far  West  to  the  Bosphorus  on  the  North-east  and  to 
the  mouths  of  the  Nile  on  the  far  South-east,  none  dared, 
upon  all  the  outlined  coast,  to  contest  the  power  of  the 
great  Roman  Empire.  To  the  brooding  eye  of  the  poet  it 
might  seem  as  if  the  three  great  continents  which  made 
up  the  chief  subjects  of  thought  to  the  ancient  world  had 

4  * 


42  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

each,  by  its  tutelary  gonius,  sat  clown  to  bathe  its  feet  in 
those  azure  waters.  Africa  and  Europe  and  Asia,  each 
with  Roman  collar  on  the  neck  and  Roman  fetter  on  the 
ankle,  subjugated  if  not  loyal,  all  looked  up  to  the  eagles 
of  Cfesar  as  the  symbols  of  a  mighty  and  incontestable 
sovereignty.  With  what  jealousy  do  modern  nationalities 
watch  the  divided  power  over  the  same  great  waters. 
Britain  is  holding  the  western  keys  in  Gibraltar  and 
Malta,  and  eyeing  France  enviously  as  in  her  Algerine 
dependency  she  seems  seeking  to  control  the  desert,  or 
as  slie  at  tlie  mouths  of  the  Nile  or  by  the  Suez  Canal 
threatens  English  communications  with  India;  and  fore- 
casting anxiously  the  results  should  Russia  replace  Turkey 
at  the  gates  of  the  Bosphorus,  in  the  old  city  of  Constan- 
tine.  The  shores  thus  parcelled  out  and  begrudged  by 
modern  civilization  were,  in  our  Lord's  day,  all  gathered 
under  the  rule  of  the  one  Csesar. 

But  if  outwardly  the  vast  empire  were  at  peace,  it  was 
not  at  rest.  Augustus  himself  had  felt  the  necessity  of  a 
moral  renewal  of  the  realm  that  he  governed.  Marriage 
had  become  discredited,  and  it  was  hoped  by  enactment 
and  reward  to  make  it  again  popular  or  unavoidable. 
The  sovereign's  own  household  was  in  such  condition 
that  the  father's  heart,  as  he  turned  to  his  own  child,  was 
saddened  and  stung  within  him.  The  legislator  knew, 
that,  if  the  old  homes  of  Rome  were  not  restored  with 
something  of  their  antique  order  and  sacredness,  Roman 
greatness  must  perish  on  its  own  crumbling  and  dese- 
crated hearthstones.  His  only  child,  Julia,  died  in  dis- 
graced exile.    Tiberius,  who  had  submitted  to  a  reluctant 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    AS   SET    UP    BY    CHRIST.      43 

divorce  from  a  wife  wlioin  he  loved,  to  become  the  hus- 
band of  this  imperial  daughter,  succeeded,  as  the  recom- 
pense of  this  union,  to  the  throne  of  his  father-in-law, 
but  upon  the  wreck,  as  it  were,  of  his  own  household 
peace  and  honor.  The  Augustus  who  could  subjugate  an 
empire  could  not  reform  its  households,  or  even  guide 
wisely  his  own.  And  how  ineffectual  edicts  and  penalties 
and  exiles  were,  to  make  the  home  secure  and  the  conju- 
gal union  blessed,  was  illustrated  in  the  very  days  com- 
memorated in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The  Claudius  in 
whose  times  occurred  the  famine  predicted  by  the  prophet 
Agabus  had,  before  reaching  the  purple,  been  twice  mar- 
ried and  divorced.  When  emperor,  he  was  twice  mar- 
ried again.  Under  the  pressure  of  that  scarcity  of  bread 
which  Agabus  had  foreseen  and  which  the  charity  of 
early  Christians  sought  at  Jerusalem  to  relieve,  Claudius, 
in  his  passage  through  the  streets  of  the  metro]3olis,  had 
been  pelted  with  crusts  of  bread  by  the  populace,  who  had 
learned  to  depend  on  imperial  largesses  for  their  suste- 
nance, and  who  were  provoked  at  the  delay  in  the  arrival 
of  the  expected  supplies.  When,  at  last,  the  long-desired 
keels  from  Egypt,  the  granar}'  of  the  empire,  had  brought 
bread,  this  same  Claudius  selected,  as  one  of  the  rewards 
for  the  mariners  who  had  come  up  with  timely  and  wel- 
come supplies,  the  expressive  and  singular  privilege  that 
they  should  be  exempted  from  obedience  to  the  law  of 
the  empire  making  marriage  compulsory.  It  was  a  ludi- 
crous yet  most  lamentable  confession,  how  the  homes  of 
the  empire  had  become  hopelessly  forlorn  and  loveless, 
when  bachelordom  should  be  proclaimed  as  the  emperor's 


44  LECTUKES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

own  singular  recompense  for  the  hardy  voyagers  who  had 
fed  the  hordes  of  a  famishing  capital. 

The  great  historian  Tacitus  has  told  us  how  general 
was  the  expectation  of  a  great  Deliverer  from  the  East, 
W'ho  should  set  up  an  universal  dominion.  And  the  pages 
of  the  chief  Roman  poet,  Virgil,  a  favorite  of  Augustus, 
had,  in  one  of  his  eclogues  addressed  to  Pollio,  heaped  on 
a  child  born  to  his  friend  images  and  anticipations  of 
coming  good,  that  the  best  critics  now  agree  in  supposing 
to  have  been  derived  from  the  phrases  and  pledges  of 
Hebrew  prophecy  concerning  the  Messiah.  Palestine,  the 
land  of  our  Lord's  birth,  was  one  of  the  outlying  depend- 
encies of  the  great  pagan  Empire  of  Rome.  The  God  who, 
by  Daniel,  had  foretold  the  growth  of  Latin  imperialism 
and  the  peculiar  force  that  it  should  wield  in  crushing  its 
subject  populations,  had  pledged  the  rise  of  a  kingdom 
that,  like  a  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands, 
should  become  a  great  power  and  fill  the  earth.  Not  of 
man's  shaping,  it  should  defy  and  outgrow  man's  curbing. 
In  the  child  that  at  Bethlehem  was  laid  in  a  manger ; 
in  the  3'outh  that  as  an  artisan  aided  at  Nazareth  in  the 
workshop  of  his  reputed  father,  Joseph  the  carpenter;  but 
who  had  been  proclaimed  by  his  forerunner  with  such 
directness  and  solemnity  as  one  taking  away  sin — the  sin, 
not  of  Israel,  but  of  all  people ;  the  guilt,  not  only  that 
with  which,  under  Ahab  and  Manasseh  and  Herod,  Pales- 
tine had  been  drenched,  but  the  sins  of  the  outer  Gentile 
world,  not  merely  far  as  Tyre  had  discovered  it,  or  far  as 
Rome  had  conquered  it,  but  to  shores  never  reached  by 
Phoenician  keel,  never  overshadowed  by  Roman  eagle. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    AS   SET    UP   BY    CHRIST.      45 

over  the  entire  globe, — in  him  God  had  prepared  the  offer- 
ing of  an  oblation  that  could,  in  the  energy  of  its  eflicacy, 
span  all  the  continents  and  travel  down  the  entire  course  of 
tlie  world's  centuries.  This  Deliverer  was  to  be  the  moral 
Renewer,  the  mighty  Conqueror,  the  Divine  Redeemer, 
adequate  to  meet  such  a  task,  however  cumbrous  and 
complicated ;  to  rise  up  to  the  dignity  and  vastness  of  an 
enterprise  so  blessed;  but  seemingly  so  hopeless,  from  the 
very  extent  of  its  compass  and  the  countless  multitudes 
of  its  perishing  beneficiaries. 

"  The  kingdom  of  God,"  said  the  Saviour  at  an  early 
period  of  his  ministry,  "  is  wdthin  you ;  other  legislators 
deal  with  the  outer  act,  and  visit  with  the  corporal  pen- 
alty, and  can  follow  the  refractory  but  to  the  scaffold  and 
the  tomb.  I  deal  with  the  soul ;  I  go  to  the  root  of  the 
evil  to  be  remedied  in  the  stem  and  centre  of  the  Imman 
character.  Come  from  the  unseen  and  eternal  world,  I 
■wield  its  retributions,  as  I  open  its  blessedness.  Fear  not 
those  who  can  kill  the  body  and  find  their  puny  power 
there  all  exhausted ;  but  fear  him  who  casts  the  soul  into 
hell."  Make  the  tree  good,  that  its  fruit  may  be  good,  is 
the  philosophy  of  Heaven.  The  laws  of  the  kingdom 
that  he  came  to  establish  were  spiritual,  and  the  energies 
that  he  came  to  wield  were  not  tangible  and  visible,  to  be 
counted  on  the  ten  fingers,  and  to  be  entered  on  tablets 
and  in  exchequer  rolls.  Sacrifice  w^as  the  price  of  his  own 
free  boon  to  a  guilty  and  ingrate  race.  Lifted  on  the  cross, 
he  would  draw  all  men  to  him,  but  the  love  that  made 
him  willing  at  such  a  price  to  rescue  his  very  maligners, 
blasphemers,  and  murderers,  was  a  love  that,  when  it  was 


46  LECTURES   OX   BABTIST   HISTORY. 

kindled  by  reflection  from  him  in  their  hearts,  would 
make  them  strong  to  compassionate  and  brave  to  endure. 
They  would  become  resolute  and  meek  and  glad  cross- 
bearers  in  the  train  of  a  crucified  Kedeemer,  and  freely 
receiving  would  freely  give.  Continuing  and  deepening 
the  work  of  his  harbinger  John,  he  by  his  Spirit  turned 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  when  he,  in  the 
very  hour  of  his  advent,  taught  by  his  prescient  Spirit  an 
aged  Zacharias  and  an  exultant  Elizabeth,  and  a  Simeon 
and  an  Anna  in  their  feeble  and  decrepid  isolation,  to 
look  hopefully  toward  the  days  of  relief  now  begun  for 
Israel  and  for  all  mankind;  to  see  in  cradles  now  ten- 
anted converts  and  messengers,  trophies  and  apostles,  of 
him,  the  coming  Hope  of  Palestine  and  of  all  the  earth. 
When  he  took  up  little  children  into  his  arms;  when  he 
bade  his  disciples  remember  that  those  coming  into  his 
kingdom  needed  to  come  as  with  the  docility  and  gentle- 
ness and  submission  of  the  infant,  he  inaugurated  a  new 
era  for  the  childhood  of  humanity.  And  when,  in  near 
prospect  of  his  own  bitter  and  lonely  passion,  he  turned 
to  commiserate  the  women  weeping,  by  bidding  them  look 
forward  to  those  days  of  national  woe  and  retribution, 
when  the  childless  mother,  now  generally  in  Palestine  so 
commiserated,  should  be  rather  felicitated  and  envied ; 
when  the  infant  in  its  captive  mother's  arms  should  be 
doubl}^  forlorn  in  the  desolation  of  exile,  bondage,  and 
penury, — how  did  he  illustrate  his  own  deep  regard,  and 
how  did  he  by  example  inculcate  a  keen  and  special  ten- 
derness in  the  heart  of  the  elder  to  the  j'ounger.  So  when, 
in  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  he  expounded  the  spirituality 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   AS   SET    UP    IJY    CHraST.      47 

and  breadth  of  the  law,  relieving  it  from  the  narrow,  ex- 
scinding glosses  of  the  Pharisees  and  vindicating  the  utter- 
ances of  the  old  Scripture  from  the  crippling  and  belittling 
rationalism  of  the  Sadducees,  how  did  he  victoriously 
turn  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  Abraham  in  that  age 
to  the  sounder  and  fuller  views  of  their  earliest  fore- 
fathers. When  he  expounded  the  law  of  marriage, 
carrying  it  back,  beyond  the  indulgences  and  tolerations 
of  divorce  permitted  by  Moses,  to  the  institution  as  it  was 
in  the  beginning,  when  Adam  and  Eve  walked  the  alleys 
of  Eden  under  the  eye  of  the  Father  and  Maker,  how  did 
he  vindicate  the  original  integrity  of  the  first  and  fore- 
most institution  of  human  society,  from  all  the  interpola- 
tions that  had  been  made  upon  it  by  the  weaknesses  of 
man,  and  the  relaxations  of  it  by  divine  sufferance,  allow- 
ing at  certain  times  and  for  certain  surroundings  a  remiss- 
ness which  was  not  to  be  permanent  or  universal,  as  it 
had  not  been  the  primitive  and  original  type. 

His  forerunner  had  called  to  repentance.  He  proclaim- 
ed the  remission  of  sins ;  and  by  parables  of  the  greatest 
simplicity,  pathos,  and  power,  he  bade  the  prodigal  take 
heart,  and  the  outcast  to  look  with  penitent  hope  upon 
the  celestial  home  and  the  parental  heritage  which  he 
had  wilfully  forfeited,  but  which  a  Divine  Father  was 
willing  yet  to  reopen.  The  publican  and  harlot,  the  dregs 
and  off-scoured  scum,  so  to  speak,  of  all  human  society,  he 
does  not  seal  to  despair ;  but  his  readiness  to  instruct  and 
recover  the  very  classes  upon  whom  the  hypocritical 
Pharisee  had  branded  utter  reprobation  was  one  of  the 
very  reproaches  his  enemies  flung  on  his  character,  when 


48  LECTURES    OX    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

it  marked  him,  in  reality,  as  the  true  Rebuilder  of  the 
moral  desolation  that  strewed  with  ruins  contemporary 
Hebrew  society.  Not  upraising  this  refuse  of  the  com- 
monwealth to  license  and  impunity,  but  encouraging 
them  to  contrition  and  recovery,  he  showed  himself  thus, 
indeed,  the  Refiner  that  early  seers  had  portrayed  for  their 
coming  Messiah — one  who  could  out  of  the  refuse-heai^s 
bring  forth  the  true  silver.  As  he  had  made  a  Manasseh 
in  the  old  dispensation  an  exemplar  of  his  bounteous 
grace,  so  in  this  his  new  dispensation  a  Magdalen  was 
the  herald  of  his  resurrection,  and  she,  out  of  whom  had 
gone  seven,  devils,  now  saw  the  vision  of  the  angels  who 
guarded  the  vacated  sepulchre  and  witnessed  of  the  Lord, 
as  being  on  his  way  to  a  victorious  ascension.  The  lever 
of  a  new-found  hope  was  put  below  the  sunken  courses  of 
the  Hebrew  Commonwealth.  The  opening  of  the  prison- 
house  to  those  spiritually  bound  was  part  of  his  preroga- 
tive ;  and  the  earnest  of  his  joyous  triumph,  as  Destroyer 
of  the  power  and  kingdom  of  Satan. 

Among  the  thronging  rabble  that  hooted  him  on  his 
way  to  the  cross  might  have  been  some,  then  in  their 
childhood,  who  in  the  days  of  their  manhood  writhed 
in  agony  upon  the  crosses  which  Titus,  when  pressing 
close  his  siege  of  the  fated  city,  planted  in  ghastly  lines 
about  the  Hebrew  capital.  If  impenitent  mothers  of 
these  impenitent  Jews  survived  to  behold  the  fulfilment 
of  Christ's  rejected  warnings,  how,  amid  their  keenest  and 
most  rancorous  despair,  must  there  have  come  back  even 
to  their  souls  some  sense,  that  the  far-seeing  Christ  who 
had,  so  many  years  before,  felicitated  the  barren  and  child- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    AS   SET    UP   BY    CHRIST.      49 

less  Avifc,  was  as  kind  in  S3"mioatliy  as  he  was  piercing  in 
his  divine  forecast.  Out  of  the  deepening  gloom  of  his 
own  impending  passion  he  liad  foreseen,  and  he  had  pitied 
the  woes  of  the  nursling  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  siege, 
and  the  pangs  of  the  frighted  and  famishing  and  cap- 
tive mothers  on  whose  necks  those  puny  nurslings  clung. 
Eyes,  that  had  been  dimmed  with  the  bloody  sweat  of 
Gethsemane  but  a  few  hours  before,  could  bend  compas- 
sionate glances  on  the  maternal  hearts  that  were  to  be 
wrung,  when  the  Latin  siege-lines  should  surround  the 
Hebrew  sanctuary. 

But  he,  thus  divine  in  knowledge,  in  compassion,  in 
stainless  holiness,  and  in  miraculous  powers,  is  an  Obla- 
tion. But  he  is  Priest  as  well  as  Victim,  and,  gone  up  on 
high,  he  pleads,  in  the  most  high  and  hoh'^  j^lace  of  his 
present  celestial  exaltation,  the  cause  of  his  people.  He 
is  Prophet;  and  in  his  own  fresh  prediction,  and  in  his 
symmetric  and  unexampled  accomplishment  of  the  older 
prophecies,  that  from  earliest  days  had  gone  before  con- 
cerning him,  how  had  he  set  himself,  not  only  before  the 
nation,  but  also  before  all  Gentiles,  as  the  Desire  of  all 
nations,  the  Prophet  and  the  Helper  and  the  Teacher  of 
all  people. 

John  the  Baptist  had  confined  himself  to  the  Jewish 
nation  in  his  ministry.  The  greater  Prince  also,  for  whose 
way  John  prepared,  limited  his  inmiediate  ministrations 
generally  to  the  seed  of  Israel.  But  in  his  expositions,  at 
the  synagogue,  of  Elijah's  errand  of  mercy  to  the  Gentile 
widow  of  Zarephath,  and  of  Elisha's  miracle  of  healing 
for  Naaman  the  Gentile  soldier  and  ruler;  in  his  refer- 


50  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

ences  to  Jonah  and  to  Daniel,  each  of  these  great  seers 
laboring  partly  for,  and  largely  amongst,  other  than  a 
Hebrew  population, — how  had  our  Saviour  brought  forth 
into  clear  prospect  the  purpose  which  he  cherished  of 
making  tlic  gospel  of  his  kingdom  to  be  glad  tidings  unto 
all  nations.  Reappearing  after  his  resurrection,  he  had 
declared  that  all  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth  was  given 
into  his  hands,  and  that  his  truth  was  to  be  preached  to 
every  creature.  A  heaven-wide  benefit  demanded  a  world- 
wide testimony. 

In  all  this  how  signally,  yet  how  unexpectedly  to  his 
own  countrymen  and  even  to  his  own  apostles,  did  he 
fling  down  in  his  new  empire  the  old  barriers  of  exclu- 
siveness,  the  middle  wall  of  partition  between  the  uncir- 
cumcised  heathen,  and  the  children  of  Abraham  with  the 
rites  of  the  law  sealed  upon  them.  And  how  did  he  illus- 
trate the  breadth  not  only,  but  the  bounteousness,  of  the 
new  kingdom.  It  Avas  not  for  his  own  kingly  lineage  or 
for  the  tribe  of  Judah  ;  for  the  learned,  the  wealthy,  and 
the  mighty :  his  gosjjel  was  pre-eminently  for  the  poor. 
In  the  imagery  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  roll  which  the 
angels  were  not  adequate  to  open  and  read,  and  which  the 
Lamb  only  Avas  competent  to  free  from  its  seven  prisoning 
seals,  was  written,  as  the  apostle  says,  not  only  within,  but 
on  the  outside  as  well.  The  classical  antiquarian  tells, 
how  the  rolls  of  ancient  ages  sold  in  the  booksellers'  stalls 
were,  when  intended  for  the  affluent,  written  on  parch- 
ment and  only  upon  the  inner  side ;  but  cheaper  copies 
of  the  favorite  classics,  demanded  for  students  of  narrower 
means,  were  on  rolls  uf  paper,  and  the  writing  there  was 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   AS  SET   UP   BY   CHRIST.      51 

not  only  upon  the  front  of  the  roll,  but  upon  the  buck  as 
well.  A  volume  of  this  character,  whatever  its  seals  and 
its  Divine  Holder,  was,  from  this  aspect  of  the  lines  in- 
scribed on  it, — witliout  as  well  as  within, — denoted  by 
that  single  feature,  as  being  the  contribution  of  a  new  and 
divine  literature,  not  for  the  select  and  affluent  and  lux- 
urious few,  but  for  the  multitudes  whose  longings  after 
knowledge  poverty  could  not  repress.  The  classic  of  the 
skies  was  to  be  edited  for  the  masses.  Philosophies  and 
inquisitions  might  seek  to  hold  it  back;  but  God's  book 
cliallenged  the  hungering  eyes  of  the  multitude.  As  into 
the  world  of  light,  our  Divine  Teacher  carried  this  emblem 
of  his  benign  thoughtfulness  for  the  vast  masses,  just  as 
he  had  said,  when  his  harbinger  John  from  Herod's 
prison  inquired  for  new  credentials  of  the  mission  of  the 
Emmanuel ;  and  he,  the  Divine  Enfranchiser,  put  as  the 
crown  and  culmination  of  all  his  evidences  this,  that  the 
poor  had  the  gospel  preached  to  them. 

The  poor  rabble  of  Rome  had  from  their  pagan  lord 
their  doles  of  bread  and  their  games  in  the  amphitheatre. 
They  saw  the  wild  beasts  tear  each  other  and  the  glad- 
iators stab  one  another ;  and,  hungry  for  human  gore,  they 
howled  in  gladness  over  the  large  provision  an  emperor, 
chary  of  his  own  blood,  but  profuse  in  shedding  the  blood 
of  his  victims,  provided  for  the  imbruted  populace  of 
Eome  in  the  circus.  When  an  Augustus  died,  one  of  his 
supple  courtiers  asseverated,  that  he  had  seen  the  spirit 
of  the  deceased  ruler  mounting  to  the  skies;  and  so  the 
obsequious  senate  voted  the  deceased  emperor  a  god. 
With   armies,  and   navies,  and   treasures,  and  laws,  and 


62  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

magistrates,  and  largesses,  and  games,  all  at  their  com- 
mand, why  should  not  Rome's  pagan  emperors,  thus 
voted  into  a  godhead,  set  up  a  j^ermanent,  a  world-quell- 
ing dominion  ?  Human  nature  in  its  baser  promptings 
and  instincts  was  all  on  their  side.  The  literature  and 
poetry  and  oratory  and  philosophy  of  the  age  were  all  in 
their  pay.  If  old  powers  bore  continuous  sway,  is  there 
any  doubt  that  pagan  Rome,  backed  by  an  impenitent 
Judaism,  by  a  temple  that  cast  out  the  Heir  and  Lord  of 
that  temple  to  be  slain,  strong  under  Sadducean  and 
Pharisean  guidance,  with  its  cry  of  "Crucify  him!"  against 
a  new  claimant  for  universal  royalty, — is  there,  we  ask, 
any  doubt,  that  pagan  Rome  in  its  imperial  might,  thus 
seconded  by  an  impenitent  Judaism,  must  crush  the  new 
faith,  and  this  Claimant  of  a  heavenly  kingdom,  into 
obscurity  and  irremediable  defeat?  Is  not  all  secular 
might,  thus  banded,  sure  to  triumph  over  the  fishermen 
and  tent-makers  that  claim,  unarmed  and  poor,  to 
announce  everywhere  the  reign  of  this  Man  of  sorrows, 
returning  as  Judge  of  quick  and  dead  ?  Meanwhile,  these 
strange  heralds  announce,  that,  in  his  grave,  the  second 
remove  from  a  cross,  there  lies  the  only  hope  of  the  race 
for  renewal  and  life  everlasting.  The  poor,  the  denounced, 
the  prisoned,  the  tortured,  the  martyred,  went  everywhere 
attesting  that  this  King  of  Israel  met  all  earth's  real  neces- 
sities and  aspirations — was  the  Desire  of  all  nations.  Call 
him  rather,  the  world  miglit  scoffingly  respond,  the  Scorn 
of  all  people.  The  vilest  contumely,  now  gatliered  on  the 
images  of  halter  and  scaffold,  then  was  grouped  as 
intensely  on  the  cross,  accursed  to  the  Jew,  and  to  the 


THE   KINGDOM   OF  GOD   AS  SET   Ur   BY   CHRIST.      53 

Roman  so  odious  that  the  most  abandoned  culprit,  if  of 
Roman  citizenship,  was  accorded  some  less  forlorn  and 
villainous  a  death.  But  they  who  follow  him  have 
counted  the  cost,  and  are  ready  to  tread  in  his  footsteps 
their  own  meek,  resolute  way  to  the  cross.  Who  will  fol- 
low, at  such  risks  and  against  such  odds,  the  Claimant  that 
says,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,"  speaking  as 
from  a  gibbet  whence  his  disciples  had  so  recently  lowered 
his  lifeless  corpse,  speaking  as  out  of  a  tomb  where  ene- 
mies had  but  lately  sealed  him,  and  as  they  thought 
effectually  and  finally  quashed  his  mission? 

A  great  company  will  be  his  believing  disciples,  and 
eager  witnesses  to  his  recovered  life  and  his  experienced 
grace.  Priests,  who  had  once  hounded  the  rabble  to 
extort  from  the  reluctant  Pilate  the  consummation  of  the 
sacrifice,  will  become  themselves  obedient  to  this  faith,  a 
great  company  of  them  recanting  their  blasphemies,  and 
adhering  to  the  fiiith  of  the  maligned  and  excommuni- 
cated Nazarene.  A  Nicodemus  and  a  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
out  of  the  very  Sanhedrim,  will  show  their  adhesion  to 
his  cause.  A  Saul  fresh  from  the  school  of  Gamaliel, 
and  from  the  scene  of  a  Stephen's  martyrdom,  Avill 
become  a  convert  and  an  apostle.  And  the  story  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  Jewish  people,  as  Josephus  wrote  it, 
their  siege  and  their  overthrow  and  their  dispersion,  will 
blaze  forth  the  working  of  a  divine  power,  to  show  the 
truth  of  the  warnings  which  this  rejected  Prophet  had 
delivered.  A  pagan  Rome  will  come  to  accord,  however 
reluctantly,  its  testimony  to  tlie  same  inexplicable  fore- 
sight and  unerring  prevision,  in  his  foretelling  the  fates  of 
5* 


64  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  church  as  he  had  built  it.  No  power  in  the  cahinets 
and  camps  of  earth,  no  power  couched  in  the  gates  of 
hell,  has  proved  able  to  withstand  this  King's  edicts,  and 
to  falsify  the  pledges  of  this  strange  Potentate,  emergent 
from  the  sepulchre  and  preaching  immortality  as  from 
its  dark  shadow. 

The  history  of  Roman  imperialism  has  been  written  in 
the  days  of  its  decline  and  fall  with  signal  ability  and 
great  research,  by  an  infidel  scholar  of  Britain.  Gibbon 
has  endeavored  to  show,  how  causes  merely  human 
account  for  the  overthrow  of  Paganism,  and  the  triumiDh- 
ant  diffusion  and  general  reception  of  the  new  faith.  But 
his  reasonings  have  not,  to  the  candid  and  dispassionate, 
seemed  adequate  or  self-consistent.  A  Scotch  jurist.  Lord 
Hailes,  of  acuteness  and  erudition,  promptly  replied  to 
the  inadequate  explanations  of  the  sceptical  historian. 
Christian  scholars  like  Guizot,  the  eminent  French  states- 
man, not  long  since  departed,  and  like  Milman,  the  Eng- 
lish poet  and  theologian,  have  to  their  several  editions  of 
Gibbon  appended  notes  and  comments  explaining,  at  less 
or  greater  length,  the  insufficiency  of  the  evasions  which 
Gibbon  employs  to  sheathe  the  force  of  Scrijiture  proph- 
ecies, and  to  lessen  the  wonders  of  Christ's  new  and  spir- 
itual sway.  In  days  yet  more  recent,  the  Comte  de  Cham- 
pagny,  a  French  scholar  and  statesman,  son  of  one  of  the 
ministers  of  state  to  the  first  Napoleon,  himself  a  devout 
Romanist,  has  presented  the  story  of  the  closing  days  of 
the  Jewish  State  and  of  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  with  a  thoroughness,  a  vividness,  and  an  elo- 
quence, that  stir  the  reader's  soul.     This  work  it  is,  prob- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    AS   SET   UP    BY    CHRIST.       55 

ably,  that  lias  procured  for  hiin  the  honor  of  an  admission 
to  that  eminent  literary  l)ody,  the  great  French  Academy, 
Avhose  membership  is  among  the  foremost  distinctions  of 
all  modern  scholarship.  As  a  very  decided  Ultramontan- 
ist,  he  cannot  carry  with  him  in  some  of  his  views  and 
conclusions  the  sympathy  of  his  Protestant  readers:  but  in 
a  presentation  of  the  inner  constitution  of  the  Roman  im- 
perial State,  of  its  modes  of  enveloping  and  adopting  the 
cities  and  peoples  that  it  conquered,  of  Paganism  sick  to 
the  death,  and  Philosophy  unable  to  palliate  the  social 
evils  it  must  confess,  it  is  a  book  of  great  merit,  and  de- 
serving close  study.  We  have  nowhere  else  seen  a  state- 
ment of  the  gradual  intcrpenetration  of  the  Roman  liter- 
ature and  the  Roman  jurisprudence  and  the  pojiular  phil- 
osophy of  the  Empire,  by  the  principles  of  the  gospel, 
that  approaches,  in  fulness,  in  clearness  and  force,  this 
work  of  De  Champagny,  well  worthy  of  an  English  ver- 
sion by  some  competent  and  faithful  scholar. 

Into  the  catacombs — places  of  burial,  but  of  shelter 
also — went  the  hunted  and  proscribed  followers  of  the 
Nazarene,  and  out  of  these  catacombs  the  confessors  of 
this  faith  one  day  emerged,  to  see  the  Empire  awed  and 
many  of  its  nationalities  won,  by  the  spiritual  doctrine 
which  once  these  Gentile  rulers  had  endeavored  to  con- 
sume by  martyr-fires,  and  to  drown  out  in  the  blood  of  its 
hapless  proselytes. 

Now,  what  had  been  Daniel's  imagery  of  this  great  and 
widespreading  power?  It  was  not  to  be  some  statue,  like 
the  figure  seen  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  bespeaking 
the  sculptor's  toil  of  hand  and  the  critic's  educated  eye, 


56  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

and  exhibiting,  it  might  be,  all  the  symmetry  of  art. 
Like  the  unhewn  stones  of  the  first  altars  of  the  Mosaic 
economy,  without  mark  of  graver  upon  them,  it  was  to 
be  a  growth,  and  not  a  fabric;  heaven's  boon,  and  not 
man's  device. 

So  the  Spirit  of  God,  working  when  and  where  he 
would,  had  made,  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  this 
truth  to  take  hold  on  fresh  converts  and  win  new  accre- 
tions of  proselytism,  until,  insensibly,  the  rock  became  a 
cliff,  and  the  cliff  a  towering  mountain-range,  that  com- 
manded the  regard  of  every  eye,  and  crossed  the  path  of 
the  most  heedless  and  unobservant  traveller. 

But  if  Christ  be  a  king,  what  are  his  prerogatives  as  a 
monarch?  Now,  earthly  governments  are  generally  re- 
garded in  their  threefold  arrangements  as  to  the  legisla- 
tive, the  judicial,  and  the  executive  power.  Under  certain 
forms,  and  by  assemblies  or  counsellors  chosen  or  deputed 
to  the  end,  the  laws  are  framed,  amended,  enlarged,  or 
revoked.  The  Parliaments  of  our  British  kinsmen,  and 
the  Congresses  of  our  own  country  and  people,  are  the  de- 
positories of  this  law-making  power  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  To  judges,  of  longer  or  briefer  tenure  of  their  office, 
is  committed  the  power  of  interpreting  and  applying  these 
laws  to  the  various  cases  respecting  which  they  may  need 
explanation  and  adaptation.  But  to  the  judge  a  free 
country  is  jealous  of  allowing  any  direct  or  large  share 
in  the  law-making.  The  executive,  though  the  minister 
of  the  law,  is  himself  amenable  to  the  legislator  and  the 
judge,  yet  in  certain  posts  he  may  be  their  equal  or  supe- 
rior in  dignity.     The  constitutional  republic  depends  for 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    AS   SET    UP    BY    CIIUIST.       5/ 

its  perpetuity  and  success  on  the  harmonious  and  uncol- 
liding  interaction  of  these  great  depositories  of  power,  the 
law  in  its  making,  the  law  in  its  uttering,  and  the  law  in 
its  enforcing.  No  re])ublic  but  must  fail,  as  old  rc])u1)lu'an 
Kome  fiiiled  centuries  ago,  if  its  town  slums  usurp  and 
absorjo  and  intermingle  these  distinct  branches  of  govern- 
ment; and  the  rabble  of  yesterday  arrogate  to  make  the 
law  of  to-day,  with  no  certainty  that  it  shall  please  tliem 
to  regard  it  as  the  law  of  to-morrow.  A  kingdom  of  hu- 
man administration,  we  dread  as  liable  to  corruption  and 
revolution.  But  a  kingdom,  if  divine  and  in  the  hands  of 
an  Infallible  and  Undying  and  Omnipresent  King,  every- 
where near  to  the  cry  of  his  petitioners,  and  every  hour 
wielding  an  omnipotence  that  neither  stumbles  nor  tires, 
is  the  more  blessed  for  its  subjects,  and  the  more  perfect 
in  its  character,  when  its  legislation  and  its  judgment  are 
grouped  into  the  hands  and  heart  of  one  Potentate,  the 
Lord  God  Almighty. 

We  read  the  New  Testament,  and  read  it  as  collated 
with  the  Old,  its  precursor.  In  its  imperfect  and  frag- 
mentary  measure,  the  elder  book  is  the  counterpart  and 
earnest  of  the  newer,  its  complement  and  its  crown.  And 
there,  in  the  indented  and  corresponding  portion  of  each 
record,  we  find  Christ  the  one  Lawgiver.  And  no  gather- 
ing of  men,  however  august  or  venerable,  as  synod  or  as 
council,  has  right  to  add  as  legislators  one  jot  or  one  tittle 
to  the  law-book  as  the  apostles  and  the  prophets  left  it. 
So  ripe  a  scholar,  and  so  staunch  a  churchman,  as  tlio 
great  Archbishop  Ussher,  said  to  Richard  Baxter,  "  Coun- 
cils  are  not  for  government,  but  for  concord."     So,  as 


58  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   IIISTOIiY. 

to  judicial  power,  we  suppose  the  canon  laws,  as  men 
style  them,  to  be  the  voluntary  adjudications  of  those  to 
whom  the  Master  has  in  his  oracles  left  no  such  author- 
ity. We  dispute  and  repudiate  their  judgment.  As  to 
the  executive  power,  we  find  God  in  his  book  setting  up 
the  congregation,  a  local  assemblage  of  true  disciples  and 
their  pastors,  as  servants  to  him,  the  present  Ruler  of 
Israel,  and  as,  under  him,  office-bearers,  watching  spirit- 
ually over  and  for  each  other.  They  go  safely  only  as 
they  implore  the  Spirit's  guidance  and  as  they  apply  the 
Scripture  teachings.  To  the  end  of  the  world,  the  King 
has  pledged  his  presence  with  his  people  in  the  assem- 
blies that  number  Init  their  two  or  their  three.  Trusting 
in  his  veracity  and  invoking  his  fulness  of  counsel,  they 
cannot  fail.  What  is  their  safeguard?  Not  the  unity  of 
a  great  human  ecclesiasticism,  not  the  unit}''  of  some 
provincial  or  national  convocation,  but  the  "unity"  of 
the  "Spirit."  The  Paraclete,  who  cannot  deny  himself, 
boundless  in  resources  and  covenanted  to  take  of  the 
things  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  in  his  divine  immu- 
tability and  infallibility,  overspreads  all  the  jostlings  of 
the  schools  and  clasps  together  all  the  wide  chasms  of 
the  centuries.  An  Augustine's  Confessions,  a  Pascal's 
Thoughts,  a  Bunyan's  story  of  the  pilgrims,  or  his  graijhic 
tale  of  his  own  vivid  experience  in  "Grace  Abounding" 
meet  yet  an  ansAvering  throb  and  waken  the  pulses  of  a 
heaven-lit  sympathy  in  the  readers  whose  own  earthly 
training  has  been,  it  may  be,  under  Avidely  dissimilar  in- 
stitutions of  human  origin.  The  one  Spirit  weaves  his 
bond  of  peace  across  the  hurtling  Avarp  and  Avoof  of  mor- 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD    AS   SET    Ur    BY   CHRIST.      59 

tal  dissonances  ar.d  earth-born  controversies.  Through 
Christ,  the  one  way,  the  children  of  many  various  civiliza- 
tions, with  skins  blanched  by  arctic  frosts  or  blackened 
by  tlie  tropical  heats,  subjects  of  political  despotisms  or 
self-governed  in  political  democracies,  have  access  in  com- 
mon to  one  Father,  and  breathe  in  blessed  anticipation 
the  airs  of  a  common  Paradise  awaiting  them,  when  the 
death-day  shall  have  ended  the  exile  and  gathered  in  the 
household. 

It  was  the  grand  and  kindly  purpose  of  the  Monarch 
who  is  also  the  ransoming  Elder  Brother  of  his  people  to 
commend  the  statute-book  of  his  laws  and  judgments  to 
their  reverence,  their  credence,  and  their  diligent  stud}^ 
by  giving  it  the  name,  variously  rendered,  of  covenant 
and  testament.  Take  it  in  the  sense  of  a  covenant  or 
solemn  compact,  it  is  the  league,  sacred  and  mutual,  of 
the  King  of  saints  with  all  his  vast  flocks  of  the  various 
centuries.  It  is  a  covenant,  according  to  the  imagery  of 
this  volume,  ratified  with  blood.  Abraham,  father  of  the 
faithful,  entering  into  covenant  with  his  God,  had  for 
himself  to  pass,  and  the  Maker  who  entered  into  pledge 
with  him  went,  by  the  symbol  of  a  smoking  lamp — Divine 
Grantor  and  human  grantee — both  went  between  the 
severed  portions  of  a  slain  victim.  The  covenant  was 
ratified  by  sacrifice.  And  when  the  Redeemer  on  the 
cross  was  giving  up  the  ghost,  the  great  inner  veil  of  the 
temple,  with  its  lofty  webs  of  gorgeous  tissue  and  thick 
stout  folds,  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom, 
as  if  the  indwelling  Jehovah,  before  hidden  in  remote 
seclusion,  came  out  to  attest  tlie  nearer,  clearer  raanifcs- 


60  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

tation  of  his  n.iture  and  character;  and  that  into  the  Most 
Holy  Place  was  now  given  free  access,  not  as  before  to 
priest  only,  but'to  each  worshipper  as  well.     As  the  apos- 
tle phrases  it,  a  new  and  living  way  was  thus  opened  for 
us.     We  were  made  kings  and  priests  to  God  by  a  new 
and  loftier  consecration,  and  we  may  not  forego,  we  may 
not  forget,  this  covenant  through  Avhichethe  Father,  God, 
thus  came  out  to  be  nearer  than  ever  before  to  us,  and 
through  which  we,  the  worshippers,  come  near  unto  him, 
the  Father.     The  blood  of  that  oblation  bedews  the  vol- 
ume from  Genesis  to  Malachi  and  from  Matthew  to  John's 
Apocalypse.    The  cross  tore  down  for  evermore  that  veil. 
But  take  the  term  in   the   sense  which  others  prefer 
giving  to  it.     It  is  a  testament,  a  last  will,  reciting  the 
final   and   unamendable   instructions   of  a  Brother  who 
has  bequeathed  a  pardon  here  and  eternal  life  hereafter. 
It  was  of  necessity  that  the  Testator  should  die  ere  the 
instrument  could  obtain  its  validity.     Has  he  really  shot 
the  gulf  and  taken  hold   on  the   immortality  beyond  ? 
The  Fall  of  Jerusalem  responds  no  less  than  the  scenes  of 
the  crucifixion  and  resurrection.    The  Jewish  people  had, 
a  few  years  earlier  than  the  time  when  the  old  fane  of  the 
Hebrew  went  down  in  blood  and  ashes  before  the  batter- 
ing-rams and  the  torches  of  the  Roman,  invoked,  as  in  a 
solemn  moral  suicide,  by  their  high  priests  Caiaphas  and 
Annas,  by  their  Sanhedrim,  by  their  populace  filling  the 
lanes   of  Jerusalem  and   demanding   the   crucifixion   of 
their  King — had  implored  deliberately  the  adjudication 
of  Heaven,  as  between  the  nation  dooming  this  Sufferer 
and  the  Sufferer  whom  they  had  so  doomed,  so  assured 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   AS  SET   UP   BY   CHRIST.      61 

■were  they  of  his  guilt  and  of  their  own  innocent  indigna- 
tion as  being  a  holy  zeal — had  invoked  and  implored  that 
the  blood  of  their  Victim  should  rest  on  them  and  their 
children.  The  invasion  of  the  Gentile ;  the  devastation 
of  their  land  and  the  erasure  of  their  sanctuary;  their 
long  exile  from  the  place  of  their  ancestral  offerings  and 
sacrifices;  their  wide  dispersion  from  the  one  spot  where 
God  had  set  in  that  dispensation  his  name — are  a  terrible 
response  of  the  divine  Nemesis  to  the  fearful  appeal  which 
then  and  there  they  had  made,  and  a  very  significant  en- 
dorsement that  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  had  not  disowned 
the  Son  and  Heir  whom  these,  the  keepers  of  that  vineyard, 
thus  undertook  to  repudiate  and  to  condemn.  Like  the 
earlier  Abel's  blood  bringing  down  Cain's  mark,  the  gore 
of  this  blasphemed  but  redeeming  Abel  is  yet  crying  across 
the  ages  to  the  Justice  above.  As  the  English  jurist,  Lord 
Erskine,  one  of  the  greatest  and  acutest  of  their  advocates, 
has  said,  the  dispersion  of  the  Jewish  peoj^le  is  among  the 
most  convincing  evidences  of  the  truth  of  Scripture. 

A  covenant  over  the  severed  Lamb  of  God,  a  testament 
sealed  with  the  blood  of  the  generous  and  loving  Elder 
Brother,  the  Bequeather  as  well  as  Earner  of  its  legacies, 
has  indeed  the  highest  claims  as  the  law-book  of  God's 
people  henceforth ;  its  statutes  not  to  be  enlarged,  amended, 
or  retouched ;  its  judgments  to  be  accepted  as  j^erfect  in 
equity  and  wisdom ;  and  the  legatees  and  the  covenanters 
recognizing  in  no  human  authority  the  competency  to 
revoke  or  to  revise  the  arrangements  God  has  thus  indited. 

This  kingdom  faces  the  mythologies  and  the  philoso- 
phies and  the  governments  of  the  race.     It  claims  per- 

6 


62  LECTUEES  ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

petuity  of  dominion  and  universality  of  acceptance.  The 
Christ  confronts  the  world's  other  masters.  Which  of 
them  shall  withstand  him  successfully  ?  or  which  present 
a  plausible  claim  to  replace  the  Man  of  Nazareth  as  the 
Light  of  the  world  and  the  Judge  of  the  eternities  ? 


III. 
BAPTISM  AND  REGENERATION. 


BAPTISM  AND  REGENERATIOX. 


As  into  the  sliding  tubes  of  a  telescope,  narrow  as  they 
may  seem,  are  yet  compressed  the  prospects  of  the  further- 
most fields  of  heavenly  space  which  man's  eye  can  reach, 
so  it  may  be  said  that  into  three  words  of  no  very  great 
length  are  shut  up  the  entire  hopes  of  our  race  for  both 
worlds.  For  the  relief  of  the  lone,  forlorn  sufferer,  and 
for  the  elevation  and  betterment  of  the  corrupted  and 
degraded  masses;  to  make  oppression  impossible  and  to 
bring  wars  to  an  end ;  and  to  banish  ignorance  and  pau- 
perism and  vice,  all  sorrow  and  sin,  from  our  globe,  how 
have  statesmen  schemed  and  sages  pondered  and  patriots 
toiled  and  martyrs  bled.  The  wail  of  Need  and  the  shout 
of  Hope  have  seemed  to  unite  in  that  word,  Reform.  But 
obvious  and  unquestionable  as  may  have  appeared  the 
necessity  for  reform  in  our  neighbors,  it  has  been  hard  to 
convince  ourselves  that  Reform  needed  to  make  its  knock- 
ing heard  at  our  own  door.  The  man  with  the  beam  dark- 
ening his  own  eye  has  officiously  been  seeking  to  remove 
from  his  neighbor's  eye  the  mote,  as  our  Lord's  gentle  sar- 
casm paints  it.  Legislators  have  devised  reforms  in  law, 
and  socialists  have  projected  vast  reforms  in  the  innermost 
layers  and  most  sacred  bonds  of  society.  A  Lycurgus  has 
bequeathed  his  iron  reforms  to  Sparta;  an  Augustus,  in 

6*  E  65 


66  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

our  Lord's  own  time,  has  inaugurated  what  seemed  his 
golden  reforms  in  the  vast  imperial  domains  of  Rome. 
But  how  limited  was  the  scope  and  how  superficial  the  im- 
pression made  by  reforms  that  have  come  from  the  ruling 
classes  down  upon  the  subject  masses  of  the  j)opulation. 
In  Jewish  history,  how  soon  after  a  Joshua  had  been  laid 
in  the  tomb  or  an  Elijah  had  been  caught  up  into  the 
clouds  of  heaven  have  the  old  evils  recurred,  and  the  vows 
of  grandsires  been  forgotten  in  the  revels  of  their  grand- 
children. 

To  make  that  word  reform  potent,  the  great  Father  and 
Ruler  on  high  has  seen  it  necessary  to  show  behind  it  the 
shadow  of  a  more  portentous  word.  Revolution.  When 
saintly  seers  could  not  divorce  the  Hebrew  people  from 
their  unworthy  craving  for  the  idols  of  the  Gentiles,  God 
called  in  those  heathen  whose  foul  deities  these  his  own 
people  had  coveted,  to  be  the  inaugurators  of  a  revolution 
that  taught  the  ingrate  tribes,  in  captivity,  impoverish- 
ment, and  oppression,  the  infatuation  of  their  choice  and 
how  ruinous  the  exchange  had  proved.  And  so,  in  mod- 
ern times,  Avhen  a  nation  Avould  not  otherwise  learn  or 
practice  reform,  God  has  let  loose  upon  them  the  interior 
forces  of  class  hatred,  or,  from  beyond  the  national  boimd- 
aries,  the  greed  and  ravin  of  some  powerful  invaders. 
And  in  British  history  some  of  the  greatest  and  most 
successful  of  statesmen  have  been  those  who  heard  in 
season  the  tramp  of  a  coming  revolution ;  and  averted  it 
by  such  change  of  measures  as  calmed  discontent,  ap- 
peased the  strife  of  parties,  and  inaugurated  a  partial  or 
a  widespread   a^iendment.      In  the   days   of  the  later 


BAPTISM   AND   REGENEEATION.  67 

Stuarts  the  people  of  Cornwall,  a  stalwart  race,  then 
known  to  be  hardy  and  fearless  both  as  miners  and  as 
wreckers,  heard  that  the  chief  of  one  of  their  own  noble 
fomilies— a  Trelawney— was  in  danger,  at  London,  of 
losing  not  only  his  freedom,  but  his  head.  They  organ- 
ized their  masses,  and  the  county  resounded  with  the 
rude  refrain — 

"And  sliall  Trelawney  die?  and  sliall  Trelawney  die? 
Then  thirty  thousand  Cornish  boys  will  know  the  reason  why." 

And  these  omens  of  a  revolution  that  might  burst  forth 
were  among  the  influences,  as  was  thought  at  the  time, 
that  aided  to  obtain  for  Trelawney  and  his  fellow-prison- 
ers their  speedy  discharge  by  jury  and  judge.  In  our 
own  days  the  Reform  Bill,  as  it  was  called,  establishing  a 
more  general  representation  in  Parliament,  and  the  Cath- 
olic Emancipation  Bill  for  Ireland,  were  both  regarded  as 
necessities,  quenching  by  timely  concessions  widespread 
discontents,  that  might  else  have  flamed  out  into  revolu- 
tionary excesses.  In  our  own  national  history  it  was  to 
metho'ds  of  this  high  and  extraordinary  class  that  our 
fathers  resorted  when  they  severed  the  ties  of  colonial 
dependence  on  the  mother-country.  When  France,  with 
vast  masses  of  wrong  to  be  redressed  and  wild  hopes  of 
amendment  and  enfranchisement  proclaimed,  but  under- 
standing not  man  and  fearing  not  God,  rushed  into  her 
great  Revolution,  whatever  the  evils  that  she  corrected  and 
the  wrongs  that  she  avenged,  yet  how  much,  too,  she  suf- 
fered and  how  vainly,  and  what  ravages  she  blindly  com- 
mitted at  home  and  abroad.     After  empire  and  monarchy 


68  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

and  republic,  each  twice  tried  and  twice  renounced  with 
fickle  restlessness,  how  difficult  is  it  even  yet  for  jurist  or 
for  philanthropist,  for  ruler  or  for  voter,  to  determine 
where  and  Avhen  and  how  the  reform  may  be  made  gen- 
uine, thorough,  and  permanent,  and  thus  revolution  be 
effectually  stayed.  The  communist  and  the  absolutist 
each  would  have  his  methods  adopted ;  but,  like  the  squir- 
rel shut  in  its  ever-revolving  wheel,  after  all  the  din  and 
the  whirl  of  the  varied  experiments  the  bars  remain,  and 
the  citizen  often  feels  himself  cooped  up  at  the  last  revolv- 
ing, neither  free  nor  safe  nor  content.' 

For  great  as  is  Reform  and  dread  as  is  Revolution,  a 
third  word  was  launched  on  the  world  centuries  ago,  yet 
greater  in  significance  and  surely  and  only  blessed  in 
its  workings.  That  word  is  the  utterance  of  the  Christ 
whose  it  was  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  world. 
It  is  Regeneration ;  it  contains  in  itself  the  pledge  of  a 
reform  that  shall  be  thorough  and  enduring.  It  is  the 
first  stir  of  an  avalanche-revolution  that  shall  travel  with 
augmented  might  and  with  ever-growing  massiveness 
adown  all  the  centuries,  and  on  for  the  obedient  beyond 
the  judgment-day  into  the  far  and  blessed  eternities,  and 
for  the  disobedient  into  exile  boundless  and  hopeless. 
The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation.  It  is 
Avithin  you,  its  seat  in  the  renewed  heart,  its  aims  lifted 
heavenward,  and  taking  its  hold  on  the  brother's  heart  of 
the  Incarnate  Christ  and  on  the  throne  of  the  Everlasting 
and  Omnipotent  Father. 

Ye  must  be  "born  again"  was  his,  the  King's,  exposi- 
tion of  the  first  principles  of  his  rule  to  the  startled  and 


BAPTISM    AND   REGENERATION.  69 

perplexed  Nicodemus.  By  an  agency  invisible  as  the  air, 
but,  though  untraceable  in  its  origin  and  its  issues  to  the 
bodily  eye,  felt  and  heard  in  the  oracles  it  uttered  and  in 
the  new  principles  and  feelings  it  infused ;  by  the  Spirit, 
omniscient  and  unerring  and  omnipotent  as  on  the  dawn 
when  it  wrought  out  the  present  creation  of  our  globe, — 
were  men  now  to  be  made  over  again.  It  was  to  the  re- 
proach of  this  earthly  doctor  in  the  Sanhedrim,  receiving 
and  arrogating  the  honors  of  a  master  in  Israel,  that  he 
did  not  lay  to  heart  the  old  lesson  which  had  been  recited 
afresh  in  his  ears  and  passed  anew  over  his  own  lips  every 
time  that  in  synagogue  or  in  closet  he  had  read,  had  lis- 
tened to,  or  had  uttered  the  prayer  of  the  Psalmist  king, 
"  Create  in  me,  0  God,  a  new  heart,  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me." 

Let  men  philosophize  and  refine  as  they  will  about  the 
processes,  there  was  the  principle  recognized  wherever  a 
holy  man  of  either  one  of  the  earlier  dispensations,  patri- 
archal or  Levitical,  had  walked  with  God.  Such  unison 
and  accord  could  not  be  until  the  human  spirit  worship- 
ping and  the  Divine  and  Worshipped  One  were  brought 
into  one  mind.  He  who  shed  his  creative  energies  to 
brood  over  chaos  when  Eden  was  framed,  presided  yet 
over  the  outbreaking  and  upbuilding  of  his  own  renewed 
image  in  the  lapsed  and  chaotic  soul  of  man.  God  in  his 
providential  kingdom  had  ruled  over  all  precedent  ages 
of  darkness  in  the  world's  annals.  Now  he  Avas  to  set  up 
more  manifestly  his  own  empire,  brushing  aside  earth's 
particolored  and  shattered  dominions,  and  smelting  down 
into  true  purity  and  unity  a  church  that  should  gather 


70  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

the  many-tongued  Gentiles  and  rule  all  the  far  future  of 
the  world's  history.  Reform  of  the  grandest,  for  it  went 
into  the  roots  of  the  character ;  revolution  of  the  widest, 
for  it  altered  the  man's  relations,  not  merely  to  his  fel- 
lows, but  to  his  old  tempter  and  despot,  Satan,  and  to- 
ward the  true  and  recovered  Father  on  high — a  reform 
that  accomplished  changes  which  the  ethics  of  earthly 
moralists  and  the  speculations  of  Eastern  and  Western 
sages  were  alike  incapable  of  projecting,  much  less  in- 
competent to  achieve  —  a  revolution  that  should  ulti- 
mately beat  earth's  swords  into  ploughshares  and  make 
the  Britons,  once  the  stupid  slaves  over  whose  incapacity 
as  household  helpers  and  whose  cheapness  in  the  market 
a  Roman  orator  could  with  serene  scorn  dilate,  the  heirs 
of  a  civilization  beside  which  the  vaunted  Latin  valor  and 
the  Greek  wisdom  and  the  old  lore  of  the  far  Orient  were 
to  look  poor.  Such  reform  and  such  revolution  was  the 
Nazarene  to  make  the  grand  hope  of  the  race  in  the  re- 
generation which  he  proclaimed  to  be  his  indispensable 
requisition  for  the  citizens  of  his  new  empire,  but  the 
bestowment  of  which  he  made  free  to  all  who  honestly 
asked  it.  If  earthly  parent  gave  good  gift  to  his  child, 
though  the  parental  hand  outstretching  the  gift  were 
soiled  with  grime  or  were  red  with  slaughter;  if  men, 
being  evil,  yet  retained  sufficient  tenderness  to  give  good 
gifts  to  their  children, — much  more  would  the  Father  on 
high,  only  and  evermore  good,  give  the  Holy  Spirit  with- 
out mistake  and  Avithout  counterfeit  to  all  men  who  asked 
it  of  him. 

The  evangelist  John  is,  we  believe,  now  very  generally 


BAPTISM   AND   REGENERATION.  71 

recognizx'd  as  writing  to  fill  up  the  voids  left  in  the  three 
earlier  Gospels  by  a  fuller  recital  of  our  Lord's  teachings. 
In  the  first  sentences  of  this  apostle's  Gospel  we  are  told 
how  the  Light  making  its  entrance  into  the  world  was  yet 
disowned  and  refused,  in  his  incarnate  manifestation,  by  the 
race  who  were  his  own  handiwork,  and  by  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, who  were  the  chosen  depositories  of  his  prophetic  or- 
acles and  his  regal  pedigree  and  his  world-wide  title-deeds. 
"  He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not." 
But  when  the  chief  builders  thus  disallowed  and  rejected 
the  chief  Corner-stone  of  the  sj^iritual  fabric  which  Heaven 
was  to  rear  as  the  final  iane  for  earth's  worshippers  and 
the  crowning  dome  of  all  human  aspirations,  this  very 
refusal  by  the  human  builders  was  the  seal  of  predestined 
identification  on  the  part  of  the  Divine  Architect.  By 
every  page  of  prophecy,  every  off'ering,  every  prayer,  that 
had  gone  up,  were  the  nation  and  their  ritual  and  religion 
all  "  his  own."  "  His  own  received  him  not."  Aaron's 
line  would  not  veil  mitre  in  his  honor ;  Herod's  mongrel 
progeny  had  no  purpose  to  grant  this  peasant  from  Naz- 
areth an  inch  on  the  lowermost  steps  of  the  throne  which 
they  had  usurped  from  David's  true  descendants ;  hoary 
scribes  muttered,  with  Isaiah's  warning  placed  as  under 
their  gray  eyebrows,  "  We  hide  our  faces  from  him ;  we 
esteem  him  not,"  and  thought  themselves,  forsooth,  thus 
defeating  the  very  Emmanuel  whom  they  were  thus 
according  the  very  reception  which  their  own  Isaiah  had 
foreseen  for  him.  "  Come  unto  his  own.  Of  his  own  not 
received."  The  evangelist  goes  on  to  add,  with  a  divine 
equanimity,  "  but  as  many  as  received  him  to  them  gave 


72  LECTUEES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that 
believe  on  his  name."  As  Christ  at  quitting  the  workl 
said  virtually,  belief  is  salvation,  unbelief  is  perdition, 
so  has  John  declared,  that  the  hinge  of  regeneration,  tbe 
seal  of  sonship  to  a  new  adoption  b}"-  God  the  Father,  is 
belief  or  faith  in  Christ.  "To  them  that  believe  on  his 
name,  which  were  born  not  of  blood  nor  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."    , 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  author  of  the  new  birth.  Faith 
in  the  name  of  the  Divine  and  Atoning  Son  as  the  channel 
of  the  regeneration ;  and  a  common  heirship  this  side  the 
grave  and  beyond  the  grave  in  the  household  of  faith 
with  the  other  children  of  divine  grace,  and  hereafter 
among  the  sharers  of  the  celestial  glory,  as  the  prospect 
set  before  those  renewed  in  nature  and  born  to  a  higher 
and  better  and  purer  life, — such  is  John's  statement  of 
regeneration. 

Until  the  great  Avork  of  his  passion  was  consummated, 
and  the  final  culminant  miracle  of  his  resurrection  and 
his  ascension  was  superadded  as  the  counterpoise  and  the 
enhancement  of  Christ's  humiliation  to  death,  it  was  not, 
in  the  harmonious  order  of  the  divine  economy,  as  yet 
fitting  that  the  Holy  Ghost  should  be  given  in  the  full 
measure  of  his  influence.  After  its  outgushing  in  Pente- 
cost, the  apostles  were  prepared  for  carrying  their  world- 
wide testimony  to  all  people.  The  Saviour  had  himself 
honored  in  the  centurion  and  in  the  Syro-phcBnician 
woman  and  in  the  Samaritan  a  faith  that  as  from  Gentile 
homes  was  stretching  out  its  hands  to  the  Hebrew 
Messiah,  who  was  also  to   show  himself  the  Desire   of 


BAPTISM   AND   REGENERATION".  73 

all  nations  and  the  Light  of  the  entire  world.  The  book 
called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  seems  to  some  a  disordered 
and  fragmentary  treatise;  but  it  appears  to  lis  framed 
with  a  divine  symmetry.  It  begins  at  Jerusalem  with  a 
Hebrew  apostate.  It  Avheels  around  to  Antioch,  a  centre 
of  Greek  cultivation,  where  the  disciples  were  first  called 
Christians,  and  where  the  question  is  raised,  Should 
Jewish  proselytism  be  required  to  membership  from  Gen- 
tile converts  in  the  new  kingdom  universal  and  eternal? 
From  Jerusalem  inspired  apostles  attest  and  sanction  as 
right  the  course  of  Paul.  The  Gentile  believer  need  not 
enter  Christian  privileges  through  Jewish  portals.  Then 
that  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  is  dropped  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  liistory  in  Rome,  the  pagan  heart  of  that 
great  Gentile  civilization,  there  to  deliver  before  Csesar 
and  his  motley  household,  and  his  many-tongued 
garrison,  and  the  polyglot  traders  and  courtiers  and  visit- 
ors of  that  metropolis,  a  faith  that  demands  the  credence 
and  the  homage,  and  that  propounds  the  salvation,  of  all 
people  under  the  whole  heavens. 

Citizenship  in  Christ's  empire  begins  with  regeneration. 
Faith  in  him  is  the  very  first  outgush  of  the  new-found 
spiritual  life.  The  new  heirs  of  Jehovah  are  born  into 
the  household  of  faith  with  brotherhood  to  the  Man  of 
Nazareth  on  their  birth  registers.  True  religion  is  not  a 
matter  of  heritage.  God's  new  progeny  are  not  such 
by  virtue  "  of  blood,"  be  it  that  of  Abraham  or  that  of 
Caesar  or  that  of  Japheth.  It  is  not  "  of  the  will  of  tlie 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man."  Carnal  parentage  cannot 
secure  it,  nor  can  pastor  or  apostle,  saintly  man  though  he 


74  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

be,  assure  it  to  liia  most  cherished  and  kindly  pupils. 
The  divine  power  stamps  the  images,  the  divine  grace 
widens  the  invitation.  All  may  ask  from  the  bounty  that 
is  of  Heaven's  bestowing;  none  may  presume  from  the 
nationalities  and  the  kinships,  the  objects  of  man's  con- 
fident reckoning. 

We  said  of  the  three  great  words,  reform,  revolution, 
and  regeneration,  Christ's  was  the  greatest.  The  Jew  had 
been  warned  by  our  Lord's  harbinger  that  the  axe  was 
uplifted  in  vengeance;  and,  unless  there  was  reform,  there 
would  come  revolution.  The  mass  of  the  nation  were 
heedless  of  the  warning  and  reckless  of  the  impending 
retribution.  Caiaphas  had  said  that  unless  Christ  were 
taken  out  of  the  way,  the  Roman  would  soon  strip  them 
of  home  and  nationality.  In  the  quick  rush  of  the  divine 
arbitrament  on  this  great  quarrel,  and  as  against  this  sin- 
ning people,  the  Roman  came,  soon  after  they  had  taken 
off  their  Christ,  to  take  from  them  fane  and  priesthood, 
city  and  home,  and  the  independence  and  unity  of  the 
national  life.  Refusing  reform,  they  incurred  revolution. 
In  how  tremendous  a  shape  the  last  came,  as  the  alterna- 
tive of  a  proffered  but  a  spurned  regeneration,  the  pages 
of  Hebrew  and  Roman  writers  tell.  Twelve  thousand 
Jewish  captives  labored  to  build  that  massive  Coliseum 
begun  by  the  fiither,  Vespasian,  and  completed  by  the  son, 
Titus,  under  whose  valor  Judea  incurred  her  largest  and 
Avorst  captivity.  That  Coliseum,  in  its  ruins,  stands  to 
our  own  times,  so  vast  and  strong,  though  plundered  of 
its  materials  and  layers  of  stone,  that  pilgrims  had  learned 
to  say  long  since, 


BAPTISM   AND    REGENERATION.  75 

"  Wliile  standH  tlie  Coliseum,  Rome  sliall  stand  ; 
AVhen  falls  the  Coliseum,  Rome  shall  fall ; 
And  when  Rome  falls — the  world." 

But  Rome  has  yet  another  great  monument  commem- 
orative that  Christ— however  improbable,  at  the  time  of 
its  utterance,  his  warning  seemed— spoke  as  One  having 
authority  over  times  and  empires,  over  civilizations  and 
barbarisms,  classic,  mediaeval,  and  contemporaneous. 
The  Arch  of  Titus,  reared  in  honor  of  the  waster  of  the 
temple  and  the  subjugator  of  Judea,  has  been,  at  the 
hands  of  one  of  our  own  denominational  worthies,  Robert 
Haldane,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity, 
discussed  with  singular  force  as  one  of  the  monuments 
of  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  We  allude  to  it  now  only  in 
another  light.  The  Great  Teacher,  who  announced  regen- 
eration as  the  condition  of  life,  and  ruin  as  the  dread, 
inevitable  alternative  for  the  rejection  of  it,  hired  no 
sculptor  and  enlisted  no  soldiers,  and  with  not  a  roof  to 
shelter  his  head  had  seemingly  little  reason  to  expect  that 
art  and  history  and  architecture  should  give  bond  "in 
marble  and  enduring  stone"  as  to  the  verity  and  gravity 
of  his  solemn  admonitions.  Yet  when  on  the  moulder- 
ing tablets  of  that  arch  the  traveller  sees  depicted  the 
spoils  of  the  temple,  how  strangely  does  it  seem  ap- 
pointed that  the  chisel  of  the  heathen  who  reared  the 
emblems  of  Hebrew  rite  kept  no  trace  of  altar  where  bul- 
locks bled  or  other  altar  where  incense  smoked;  but  he 
framed  the  golden  seven-branched  candlestick  and  the 
table  of  shew-bread  and  the  two  silver  trumpets  of  jubilee 
and  passover.     In  the  candelabrum  seems  preserved  by 


76  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

credible  and  authentic  tradition  the  image  of  that  which 
Moses  framed  for  the  tabernacle,  and  that  which  Solo- 
mon and  Nehemiah  and  Herod  renewed  for  the  temple. 
When  Judaism  of  the  past  gave  place  to  the  novel  ordi- 
nances of  this  new  Messiah  and  his  new  kingdom,  did 
not  architect  and  sculptor  "build  more  wisely  than  they 
knew  "  when  they  fixed  before  the  eyes  of  long-succeeding 
generations  of  pilgrims,  that  were  to  gaze  upon  the  blurred 
outlines  after  traversing  the  wide  Atlantic  and  coming 
from  homes  on  the  edge  of  the  far  Pacific,  such  emblems, 
that  befitted  not  so  much  the  old  but  rather  the  grander 
dispensation  that  abolished  the  temple  ?  He  proclaimed 
himself  "  the  Light  of  the  world,"  and  his  apostle  John 
saw  in  the  seven  lamps  of  the  Apocalypse  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  his  sevenfold  energies,  as  the  power,  to  all  after 
ages,  replacing  and  representing  Christ.  The  Christ  pro- 
claimed himself  the  Bread  of  heaven,  and  the  faith  that 
fed  on  his  flesh  spiritually  had  life  for  evermore ;  and  the 
enginery  to  which  he  committed  the  overthrow  of  an  im- 
penitent Judaism  and  an  imbruted  Paganism,  the  subver- 
sion of  the  old  fetiches  of  Europe  and  of  Asia  and  of 
Africa  and  of  America,  the  contradiction  and  the  refraga- 
tion  of  all  the  philosophers  and  all  the  sciences,  falsely 
so  called,  that  would  dispute  and  contradict  him.  His 
device  was  the  trumpet  of  preaching.  For  the  j^ast,  it 
announced  the  resurrection,  and  the  jubilee  of  a  finished 
redemption;  for  the  future,  it  blows  steadily  the  louder 
blast  of  a  second  resurrection  and  a  universal  judgment 
and  a  final  and  irreversible  retribution. 

The  very  trophies   of  stone  that  heathen  conquerors 


BAPTISM    AND   EEGEXERATIOX.  77 

reared  in  tlicir  triumphs  over  Christ's  Jewish  compatriot 
shivers  iniconsciously,  but  most  impressively,  typified  that 
if  a  Levitical  dispensation  had  gone  to  wreck,  a  Christian 
dispensation   had   folloAved,   an   antitype   outshining    its 
ancient  typical  lights,  renewing  and  surpassing  its  conse- 
crated food,  and  publishing  a  most  welcome  jubilee;  but 
if  it  were  unheeded,  then  behind  it  the  advent  of  the 
world's  doomsday  in  the  general  resurrection.     On  the 
Mount  of  Olives  had  he  wept  over  a  city  knowing  not  the 
time  of  her  visitation  and  senselessly  careless  to  her  prof- 
fered redemption.    As  from  the  figures  that  tell  of  the 
dire  victories  of  the  grim  legions  of  Titus  there  comes 
forth  to  the  Christian's  brooding  eye  the  light  and  table 
and  trumpet,  the  memory  of  him  who  gathers  to  his  ban- 
quet of  the  regenerate  of  all  people,  the  rays  of  whose 
mercy  stream  over  all  coasts  and  all  kindreds,  the  light 
of  all  earth's  hidings  and  mysteries,  and  out  of  whose 
gospel,  heed  it  or  scorn  it  as  we  may,  blows  steadily  the 
peal  to  make  us  a  new  heart  and  a  right  way ;  or  failing 
this,  to  abide  as  best  we  may  the  unalterable  ruin  of 
those  who  would  brand  falsehood  on  the  Incarnate  Truth, 
and  who  scoffed  at  the  world's  Judge  when  they  might 
have  had  in  him  the  world's  Redeemer  and  Regenerator. 
The  figure,  veiled  and  sad,  of  Judsea  the  captive,  on  the 
Roman   coin  minted   when  Titus    conquered   Palestine, 
seems  the  image  of  a  remorse  that  had  wasted  opportu- 
nity, and  of  a  despair  that  had  cancelled  grace. 

Now,  what  are  the  relations  of  this  great  truth,  the  new 
birth  of  regeneration,  the  only  true  gate  for  admission 

into  the  church  and  kingdom  of  the  Christ,  and  of  that 

7* 


78  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

ordinance  which,  in  the  general  judgment  of  all  Chris- 
tians, stands  as  the  first  symhol,  on  the  convert's  part,  of 
his  accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  militant  church,  and  as 
the  humble  avowal  of  his  hope,  through  the  merits  of  his 
great  Captain,  to  share  one  day  the  joys  of  the  triumphal 
Church  on  high,  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the 
first-born  ? 

As  to  its  mode,  we  suppose  that  the  form  of  the  original 
word,  its  classic  use  in  heathenism,  and  the  connections 
in  which  that  term  is  employed  by  the  inspired  evangel- 
ists and  apostles,  lead  alike  to  the  inference  that  it  was  to 
betoken  a  great  moral  wrench  in  the  penitent's  life,  break- 
ing him  away  from  old  associations  and  habits,  and  land- 
ing him,  as  by  an  irrecoverable  consecration,  under  the 
command  of  a  new  Master,  and  set  apart  to  the  toils  and 
sacrifices  of  a  new  and  blessed  conquest.  The  Lord, 
Avhose  voice  he  had  heard,  and  the  Spirit,  whose  touch 
he  had  experienced,  called  him  to  remember  that  the 
Lord  God,  the  Emmanuel,  had  said,  "  Behold,  I  make  all 
things  new."  He,  the  loyal  follower,  bade  deliberate  fare- 
well, not  only  to  the  hostile,  but  to  the  indifferent;  not 
merely  to  the  open  scoffer,  but  to  the  waverer  halting  be- 
tween two  opinions.  As  for  him,  he  was  the  cross-bearing 
recruit,  who  had  accepted  earnest-money  and  livery  from  a 
cross-bearing  Leader.  Bought  with  the  Redeemer's  own 
blood,  he  accepted  the  purchase-price,  confessing  himself 
no  longer  his  own,  but  ransomed  as  with  the  precious 
blood  of  that  sacrificed  and  atoning  Victim. 

In  the  language  of  Paul,  he  Avas  buried  as  into  the 
grave  of  Christ,  and  he  emerged  as  if  to  share  in  the  rising 


BAPTISM    AND    REGEXEILVTION.  79 

again  of  him  who  in  his  own  rent  tonil)  liad  prodaimcd 
and  legitimated  his  chiims  to  be  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Life.  His  soul's  hoi)e  was  not  extinction  with  a  crushed 
Victim,  but  the  new  life  of  a  spirit  planted  as  in  the  like- 
ness of  that  exultant  and  invincible  Conqueror  who  had 
said  to  death,  "I  will  be  th}^  destruction,"  and  who  had 
thus  defied  the  ancient  destroyer,  not  for  himself  onl}',  but 
for  the  vast  host  of  his  regenerate  and  elect  followers,  and 
also  for  his  enemies  as  well,  whom  death  was  not  to  hide 
from  the  just  recompense  of  their  impenitent  and  ingrate 
rt^ection  of  his  appeals,  his  sympathies,  and  his  media- 
tion. Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  the  humblest  disciple 
might  look  to  share  one  day  in  the  high  prerogative  of 
those  who,  as  Paul  pithily  says,  are  to  judge  the  world, 
assessors  at  the  doomsday  of  this  the  Great  Dispenser  of 
man's  endless  condition  and  recompense.  He  was  a  scion 
grafted  into  the  stem  of  Christ's  life,  and  a  fellow-heir 
made  participant  in  the  glories  of  the  Elder  Brother's 
royalties. 

Now,  many  of  the  forms  and  rites  of  earthly  orders 
have  a  touching  significance,  which  the  later  generation 
who  come  after  the  founders  might  too  easily  forget. 
When,  in  the  old  chivalry,  a  young  knight  received  his 
spurs,  he  put  his  clasped  hands  between  the  joined  hands 
of  his  baron  who  conferred  the  distinction,  and  professed 
himself  "the  man,"  the  vassal,  in  all  honor,  of  this  his 
feudal  lord.  Whilst  his  palms  thus  met  betwixt  the 
clasping  palms  of  his  elder  those  fingers  could  not  grasp 
sword  or  spear;  he  was  defenceless  in  the  control  and 
keeping  of  his  superior.     So  the  believer,  participant  of  a 


80  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

new  and  recovered  life,  has  consecrated  himself  to  Christ 
as  the  Lord's  liege  follower.  If  that  better  Captain,  in- 
stead of  hands  meekly  joined,  ask  a  surrender  as  of  arm 
and  head  and  breast  and  feet,  in  the  entirety  of  consecra- 
tion to  the  loving  Deliverer  who,  by  cross  and  grave  and 
sealed  tombstone,  redeemed  him,  is  it  a  servile  act  that  the 
convert  should  evade  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  his  joy  to 
proclaim  that  he  has  foresworn  his  old  and  degrading  en- 
slavement to  self  and  the  world  and  Satan.  The  Lord's 
full  freedman  he  would  be  in  every  member  of  his  bodily 
frame  and  in  every  faculty  of  the  inhabiting  soul — sur- 
rendered to  the  providence  and  Scripture  and  Spirit  of 
this  enfranchising  Brother.  The  Greek  communion,  in- 
heriting the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  has  for 
eighteen  centuries  put  upon  the  term  one  meaning.  The 
Latin  communion  for  nigh  twelve  centuries  used  ordi- 
narily immersion  as  its  method.  Bossuet,  one  of  the 
highest  authorities  in  the  Romish  Church,  allows  its  an- 
cient and  general  prevalence.  Campion  the  Jesuit,  ex- 
ecuted in  England  on  account  of  treason  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth  (1581),  regarded  by  his  own  order  as  a  martyr 
and  proposed  for  canonization,  had  been  in  Ireland,  and 
wrote  an  account  of  the  Irish  as  he  had  seen  them.  He 
represents  them  as  leaving  in  baptism  the  right  arm  of 
the  boy-babe  unbaptized,  to  allow  its  giving  a  more  cruel 
stroke,  and  a  more  deadly,  when  the  boy  should  be  a  grown 
man,  whilst  the  rest  of  his  body  was  covered  with  the 
baptismal  waters.  Elizabeth  herself  is  said  in  her  infancy 
to  have  received  baptism  by  immersion.  In  the  life  of 
Cardinal  Ximenes,  the  great  statesman  of  Spain,  who  did 


BAPTISM    AND    REGENERATION.  81 

SO  much  in  the  days  of  that  monarchy's  greatness  to  ag- 
grandize his  sovereign  and  to  compel  the  exile  or  the  con- 
version of  the  Moor  and  the  Jew,  is  said  by  one  of  his  old 
biographers  to  have  been  obliged,  in  consequence  of  the 
number  of  his  reluctant  neophytes  who  to  shun  exile  ac- 
cepted Christianity,  to  omit  the  old  and  established  usage 
of  immersion,  and  to  have  substituted  affusion  or  asper- 
sion. With  three  thousand  Moors  in  one  day,  or  four 
thousand  as  some  state  it,  to  receive  the  ordinance,  it  be- 
came easier  for  the  cardinal  by  a  new  mode  of  baiitism  to 
gather  in  his  compulsory  neophytes. 

So,  when  an  apostle,  speaking  of  the  deluge,  declares 
that  a  like  figure  thereto,  even  baptism,  doth  now  save 
lis — baptism,  not  the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of  the 
flesh,  but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God — 
does  not  he  imply  that  the  burial  as  of  a  flood  was  the 
natural  form  of  baptism  ?  And  how  does  it  enhance  the 
honors  of  Christ's  law  when  it  is  seen  thus,  not  only  to 
recall  the  crowning  mercy  of  his  subjugation  of  himself 
to  the  temporary  bondage  of  the  grave,  but  to  receive  the 
yet  more  ancient  wonders  of  his  mercy,  when  in  the  days 
of  the  deluge  his  care  rode  the  entombing  waters,  and 
mercy  rejoiced  against  judgment,  and  the  ark,  built  by 
the  prevision  of  the  Sender  of  the  deluge,  saved  his  own 
elect  from  the  general  ruin,  and  over  the  ruins  of  an  old 
effete,  sin-scarred,  and  death-branded  civilization  made  to 
ride  the  seed  of  a  new  economy  and  the  ancestry  of  a 
freshly-peopled  world,  who,  thus  scourged  and  thus 
schooled,  might  be  expected  to  learn  wisdom  and  dread 
fresh  relapses  into  sin. 


82  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

In  these,  it  has  its  connections  with  the  disjiensation  that 
Christ  opened  by  his  gospel,  and  with  the  dispensation 
that  Noah  had  centuries  before  reopened  in  quitting  the 
ark  and  pressing  his  feet  on  Ararat.  Baptism  has,  we  say, 
very  solemn  intimations.  The  Great  Architect  who  pre- 
scribed the  keel  that  was  to  float  the  few  saved  from  the 
deluge ;  and  the  Great  Deliverer  who  foresaw  as  from  the 
edge  of  the  crib  at  Bethlehem  the  cross  where  he  was 
himself  to  hang,  drawing  all  men  unto  him, — set  up  a  rite 
in  its  retrospects,  alike  of  the  recent  Calvary  and  of  the 
remoter  Ararat,  which  should  speak  of  the  new  King's 
investiture  of  his  soldiers  with  their  livery,  their  badge, 
and  their  letters  of  registration,  by  something  impressive 
and  august.  And  we  read  in  the  ordinance  as  the  Sover- 
eign Saviour  bequeathed  it,  in  the  yielding  waters  that 
bury  and.  then  restore  the  loyal  disciple,  the  cenotaph  of  our 
great  Leader,  the  persistent  tomb  perpetually  erected  by 
^vhich  he  would  have  liis  death  set  forth  to  the  end  of  the 
Avorld,  and  his  exulting  triumph  over  death  and  his 
jubilant  entrance  into  Paradise  as  well.  And  if  it  would 
be  thought  temerity  for  a  follower  of  Michel  Angelo  or  of 
Christopher  Wren  to  pull  down  the  tomb  of  either  of 
these  great  architects  on  the  plea  of  substituting  a  better, 
is  it  less  temerity  to  innovate  on  the  design  in  the  gate  of 
his  own  church,  reared  by  the  Great  Architect?  Bury  us 
into  the  tomb  he  occupied.  Plant  us  into  the  new-emerg- 
ing life  that  he  there  disiDlayecl;  nor  think  it  shame  to 
stand  loyally  by  the  ways  that  he  has  opened,  and  that 
none  in  all  the  world  may  better. 

But  who  are  the  rightful  recipients  of  this  ordinance? 


BAPTISM    AND    REGENERATION.  83 

In  the  case  of  John,  his  harbinger,  wc  find  that  lie  did 
not  regard  mere  descent  from  Al^raham  as  entitling  men 
to  pass  to  his  ordinance.  They  were  to  be  penitent,  and 
to  have  the  tree  good,  if  they  would  have  the  fruit  good ; 
else,  a  generation  of  vipers,  they  were  banned  from  the 
privileges  of  the  kingdom  which  he  announced.  Was 
Christ's  a  new  baptism  ?  In  larger  privileges  and  clearer 
views  of  the  truth,  it  might  be.  But  we  have  no  traces  in 
Scripture  that  the  apostles  who  had  received  John's  bap- 
tism were  required  to  accept  a  new  rite  in  joining  them- 
selves to  the  Prince  as  they  quitted  the  herald  of  that 
Prince.  And  when  John  the  Evangelist  declares  the  son- 
ship  given  to  Christ's  true  people  to  be  not  after  the  will 
of  the  flesh  nor  the  will  of  man,  but  to  be  for  those  who 
believe  in  the  name  of  Christ,  it  seems  a  simple  and  inev- 
italile  inference  that  regeneration  belongs,  only  in  the 
way  of  faith  upon  Christ,  to  the  souls  who  j^ersonally  see, 
know,  and  welcome  Christ. 

Now,  to  put  the  ordinary  expression  of  regeneration  out- 
wardly before  the  actual  and  internal  ex23erience  of  such 
regeneration  in  the  enlightened,  discipled,  penitent,  and  re- 
newed follower  of  Christ,  seems  a  most  dangerous  assump- 
tion of  power  in  the  church,  and  also  a  most  rash  ascription 
of  intrinsic  and  magical  efficacy  to  the  outer  emblem. 

The  churches  early,  but  most  unrightfully,  learned  to 
annex  not  only  the  remission  of  sins  to  the  ordinance,  but 
the  regeneration  itself — to  attach  pardon  from  Christ  and 
new  life  from  the  Holy  Ghost  as  sequents  to  an  external 
rite.  Priestly  hands  and  church  lavers  were  thus  em- 
ployed, by  an  assumption  that  not  one  page  of  Scripture 


84  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTOltY. 

warrants,  to  usurp  the  prerogatives  of  God  the  adopting 
Father,  and  Christ  the  mediating  Brother,  and  the  Para- 
clete, the  renewing  and  illumining  Teacher. 

Some  were  induced,  like  Constantine  and  like  Theodo- 
sius,  long  after  becoming  in  conscience  and  judgment  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  to  delay  submission  to 
the  rite  from  the  fancy  that  by  deferring  to  a  late  day 
their  baptism  they  should  thus  ensure  the  cancelment 
and  the  remission  of  all  sins  that  had  been  before  com- 
mitted ;  whereas  they  had  learned  to  think  sins  wrought 
after  baptism  especially  likely  to  miss  pardon  and  to 
ensure  hell.  Thus  they  had  been  taught  to  look  away 
from  the  Atoner  and  the  Regenerator  to  the  rite,  and  the 
sacerdotal  hands  and  the  consecrated  walls  connected  with 
the  administration  of  the  rite. 

Others,  believing  again  that  the  infant  dying  without 
baptism  was  beyond  the  reach  of  regeneration  and  re- 
pelled hopelessly  and  evermore  from  the  precincts  of  Par- 
adise, urged  the  speedy  bestowal  of  the  rite  upon  helpless, 
untaught,  wailing,  and  protesting  infancy.  And  a  council, 
which  Hefele  declares  it  probable  to  have  issued  such  a 
canon  (a.  d.  418)  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century, 
pronounced  its  anathema  on  all  holding  that  children 
dying  unbaptized  might  possibly  be  saved,  and  might,  if 
missing  Paradise,  reach  at  least  some  intermediate  region 
of  peace  and  painlessness.  This  sixteenth  synod  of  Car- 
thage pronounced  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  life  ever- 
lasting beyond  the  reach  of  the  little  child  dying  so 
without  church  rites. 

The  anger  of  church  and  church-rulers,  in  the  Middle 


BAPTISM    AND    REGENERATION.  85 

Ages,  was  especially  enkindled  against  all  who,  reading 
their  Bibles,  held  that  the  rites  of  the  church  were  due 
only  to  the  willing,  the  believing,  and  the  regenerate,  and 
that  the  eternal  interests  of  the  little  child,  be  it  of  hea- 
then or  of  Christian  parents,  dying  in  its  age  of  helpless- 
ness, were  very  safe  in  the  keeping  of  him  who  could  do 
no  Avrong.  The  bitter  and  the  murderous  rage  of  perse- 
cution flamed  against  those  who  held  thus  to  the  salvation 
of  infants,  entirely  apart  from  the  church  ordinances  of 
which  they  were  as  yet  incapable.  Augustine  himself 
Avho  had  wavered  as  to  the  spiritual  prospects  of  such 
babes  early  dying,  was  silent  after  the  voice  of  the  council. 
Jansenism  itself,  so  noble  and  glorious  a  memory  in  its 
defence  of  the  great  doctrines  of  grace,  has  yet  its  sad 
record  in  this  very  matter.  The  great  volume  that  Jan- 
senius  prepared  on  the  doctrines  of  Augustine,  and  whose 
posthumous  appearance  awakened  so  memorable  and  pro- 
tracted a  conflict,  the  effects  of  which  are  not  yet  spent, 
has  attached  to  it,  in  some  of  its  editions,  the  treatise  of, 
an  Irish  ecclesiastic,  a  fellow-student  of  the  great  founder 
of  the  Jansenist  school,  and  who  afterward  became  an 
archbishop  of  Tuam,  Florence  Coury.  Its  theme  is,  "  The 
State  of  the  Little  Children  who  die  Unbaptized;"  their 
outlook  in  the  world  beyond.  In  monastic  establishments 
the  middle  meal  of  the  day  was  often  accompanied  with 
some  religious  reading,  one  of  the  brotherhood  reading 
aloud  whilst  his  brothers  were  at  the  board.  St.  Beuve, 
the  last  accomplished  historian  of  Port  Royal,  speaks  of 
this  treatise  with  its  gloomy  forebodings  as  to  the  despair 
awaiting  all   children   who   die   unbaptized,  whether   in 


86  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

Christian  or  heathen  lands,  as  being  made,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Jansenist  movement,  the  reading  of  monastic 
schools  in  Belgium,  where,  while  partaking  of  their  noon- 
day repast,  the  youthful  theologians  were  invited  to  muse 
as  they  ate  on  these  sad  dwelling-places  of  exile  return- 
less  and  of  despair  unappeasable,  that,  according  to  their 
false  views  of  baptismal  regeneration,  awaited  so  many 
hapless  myriads.  All  pagan  infants  so  dying,  it  is  held, 
go  beyond  the  range  of  hope. 

Now,  the  pontiff  awarded  to  Henry  VIII.  of  England — 
though  he  and  his  successors  in  wearing  the  tiara  had  bit- 
ter occasion  to  regret  the  bestowal — the  title  of  Defender 
of  the  Faith.  Ghastly  and  ludicrous  seemed  often  its  as- 
sociations when  contrasted  with  the  character,  morally,  of 
some  of  the  royal  wearers.  Especially  baleful  and  deplor- 
able must  it  have  seemed  to  a  devout  Romanist  when  this 
same  Henry,  defending  the  faith,  hounded  to  the  death 
zealous  Romanist  champions,  like  Bishop  Fisher  and  his 
own  accomplished  chancellor,  Sir  Thomas  More;  more 
sad  even  to  a  devout  thinker  of  Protestant  sympathies 
must  it  have  seemed  when  flaunted  by  a  Charles  II.  in  his 
harem,  or  a  James  IT.  in  the  butcheries  that  he  required  of 
a  Jeffreys  against  his  innocent  Protestant  subjects. 

Earlier  than  its  permanent  bestowal  on  Henry  VIII., 
that  title,  "  Defender  of  the  Faith,"  had  been  occasionally 
bestowed  on  individuals  of  the  Lancastrian  royal  house 
who  had  brought  into  use  against  Wycliffe  and  the  Lol- 
lards the  terrible  writ  for  the  burning  of  heretics.  He 
who  had  rebuked  his  own  apostles,  when  they  would  have 
called  down  fire  on  the  village  not  receiving  him,  Avith  the 


BAI'TISM    AND    1U]GJ:NEKATI()N.  87 

calm  reproof  that  these  over-zealous  disciples  knew  not 
the  spirit  Avhich  they  breathed  when  thus  avenging  in- 
juries to  him  who  came  not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to 
save  them, — he  gave  no  such  patterns  as  to  the  mode  of 
guarding  his  own  truth  and  saving  faith. 

And  whatever  claim,  regal  or  pontifical,  rulers  have  arro- 
gated, to  confer  or  wear  the  distinction  of  being  truly  and 
heartily  the  defenders  of  the  faith,  we  doubt  not  that  the 
verdict  of  honest  history  and  the  sentence  of  tlie  eternal 
judgment  will  be,  that  the  epithet  belongs  rightfully  and 
loyally  to  those  who,  standing  on  the  ancient  ways,  have 
refused  the  innovations,  and  resisted  meekly  and  fearlessly 
the  usurpations,  that  Avould  entrench  on  the  laws  Christ 
left  for  his  own  churches. 

To  preserve  the  honor  of  his  cause  it  is  needed  that  the 
confessors  who  call  none  other  than  him  their  Master 
sliould  jealously  guard  the  integrity  and  the  spirituality 
of  the  churches  of  the  twice-born,  the  regenerate.  While 
asserting,  that  the  infant  should  be  shielded  with  all  ten- 
derness, and  taught  early  and  faithfully  the  gospel  as 
Christ  gave  it,  how  many  of  our  fellow-confessors  have 
resolutely  held  that  only  those  taught  of  the  Spirit  and 
regenerate  had  right  to  the  ordinance  of  Christ's  house. 
They  have  also  taught  with  resolute  simplicity  that  the 
souls  of  those  dying  in  early  childhood — so  large  a  j^or- 
tion  as  they  formed  of  the  trophies  of  Death  from  our 
race — died  as  safely  Avithout  church  ordinances  as  if  they 
had  been  admitted  to  them,  unconscious  of  their  meaning. 
They  have  held  that  to  expect,  for  the  unconverted  and 
unholy,  remission  of  sins  and  a  true  regeneration  from 


88  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

outer  ordinances  and  priestly  manipulations,  was  to  cheat 
the  soul  thus  misguided,  and  to  degrade  the  ordinances 
thus  misapplied.  They  have  dared  to  ask  that  those 
bearing  the  vessels  of  the  Lord,  the  Holy  One,  should  be 
holy ;  to  assert  that  none,  unless  born  again,  had  right  to 
stand  in  Christian  membership. 

But  for  just  these  professions  of  hope  and  confessions 
of  doctrine  they  have  been  put  under  ban,  harried, 
exiled,  proscribed,  and  incarcerated.  Some  have  been 
drowned  ;  others  flung  to  vermin  in  foul  and  untended 
dungeons;  others  burned  alive;  others  buried,  like  the 
Belgian  sister  of  our  own  faith,  Anna  van  den  Hove,  who, 
as  the  sixteenth  century  was  going  out,  was  attended  by 
Jesuits  as  the  grave  was  gradually  filled  over  her,  and 
urged  to  recant  that  she  might  have  life  spared  her. 
When  she  persisted  in  her  meek  confession  and  then  and 
there  refused  the  apostasy,  was  not  hers  a  defence  of  the 
faith  which  many  a  learned  apologist  can  never  hope  to 
rival?  And  in  the  great  day  of  rising  and  of  awarding, 
they  who  thus  avouclied  the  truth,  and  scorned  to  accept 
deliverance  at  the  cost  of  renouncing  and  surrendering 
that  apostolic  verity,  will  shine  when  he,  the  Christ,  shall 
lead  the  full  and  final  regeneration  of  his  people. 

A  new  Pentecost,  bringing  the  churches  to  a  higher  con- 
secration and  putting  the  Christ  in  his  rightful  supremacy 
over  conscience  and  creed  and  character,  is  the  hope  of  the 
world  for  abiding  reform ;  for  peaceful  and  general  revolu- 
tions, that  shall  enfranchise,  exalt,  and  unite  the  nations; 
for  a  regeneration  such  as  God  waits  to  bestow,  and  Avhich 
man  should  habitually  and  reverently  implore. 


IV. 

THE  CHURCHES  AS  LEFT  BY  CHRIST 

AI^^D   MADE  BY  MAl^. 


8* 


THE  CHURCHES  AS  LEFT  BY  CHRIST 

AKD  MADE  BY  MAK. 


It  may  to  some  have  seemed  that  church  history  begins 
where  the  Bible  ends ;  that  it  is  more  properly  the  annals 
of  tlie  people  of  God  after  the  Master  in  his  bodily  pres- 
ence had  quitted  them,  and  after  the  Holy  Spirit  had  pro- 
nounced the  last  sentences  of  the  New  Testament  with  a 
solemn  ban  upon  the  rash  adventurousness  that  should 
either  on  the  one  hand  mutilate  the  record,  or  on  the  other 
hand  assume  to  amplify  and  supplement  that  Revelation. 
But  if  the  church  be,  in  truth,  a  kingdom  whose  Divine 
Founder  and  Ruler  is  still  in  his  omnipresence  at  what- 
ever spot,  in  whatever  land,  and  in  whatever  century, 
but  two  or  three  of  his  meanest  disciples  gather  in  his 
name ;  if  his  Scripture  be  her  unamendable,  unimpeach- 
able law,  and  his  Spirit  her  perpetual  and  indispensable 
life, — then  no  safe  history  of  her  can  be  outlined  with- 
out hearing  first  his  own  claims  and  tracking  his  earthly 
career,  or  without  pondering  the  traits  and  laws  of  the 
first  churches  in  the  first  Christian  century  as  the  New 
Testament  paints  them.  Go  to  the  Christian  Fathers  as 
dissevered  from  the  inspired  evangelists  and  apostles; 
turn  over  the  voluminous  and  dreary  records  of  the  so- 


91 


92  LECTUKES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

called  councils,  and  the  inquirer  is  floundering  as  in  a 
pathless  forest,  Avhere  trees  obstruct  on  every  side  the 
vision  and  show  no  pathway — a  very  Dismal  Swamp, 
where  the  foot  sinks  and  the  miasma  ascends  and  the 
snake  lurks.  In  the  fight  between  the  adherents  of  Absa- 
lom and  the  loyal  soldiers  of  his  father  it  is  said,  that 
"  the  wood  devoured  that  day  more  people  than  the  sword 
devoured."  Church  history,  severed  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  from  the  Christ  whom  that  Testament  ])resents, 
is  such  mere  morass  and  pestilent  jungle,  alike  perplex- 
ing and  destructive,  where  a  man  learns  to  plunge  for- 
ward into  passive  credulity  or  to  start  back  into  sheer 
skepticism  and  despair. 

But  learn  from  the  book,  as  Heaven  has  completed  and 
sealed  it,  the  character  and  promises  of  the  great  Captain 
of  our  salvation ;  find  there  the  hint  given  of  the  plans 
on  which  he  has  inaugurated  his  campaigns  for  the  con- 
quest of  the  race  by  the  few,  the  poor,  the  persecuted,  and 
proscribed  ;  see  there  his  precise  and  emphatic  announce- 
ment that  the  gates  of  hell  will  storm,  but  fail  to  shake, 
the  church  built  on  the  Emmanuel,  its  foundation-stone; 
heed  loyally  and  trustingly  his  pledge  that  to  the  little 
flock,  hurled  amid  the  ravening  wolves  of  the  nations  as 
a  flock  of  gentle  and  harmless  sheep,  and  in  comparative 
numbers,  as  against  the  hosts  of  their  opponents,  "  a  little 
flock,"  it  is  yet  the  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  the 
kingdom  ;  hearken  to  the  portrait  he  draws  of  the  growth 
of  that  kingdom,  slow  and  inconsiderable,  like  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  mustard-seed,  which  has  grown  into  branches 
that  shelter  the  birds  of  heaven,  inaudible  but  persuasive 


THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY    CHRIST.  93 

as  the  leaven  tingeing  and  altering  the  whole  measure 
of  meal  under  which  it  seems  at  first  irrecoverably  con- 
cealed and  suppressed ;  listen  to  the  pledges  given,  as  out 
of  his  agonies  and  humiliation  and  entombment,  that  thus 
should  he  draw  all  men  unto  him,  and  that  to  the  end  of 
the  world  he  will  be  the  Light  and  the  Life  of  his  people ; 
ponder  all  his  warnings  as  to  the  tares  interwoven  with 
the  wheat,  and  the  false  Christs  that  shall  arise,  assuming 
to  personate  and  supplant  himself,  but  against  whom  his 
servants,  vigilant  and  forewarned,  must  patiently  watch  and 
loyally  protest, — then,  thus  furnished,  the  simplest  Chris- 
tian may  launch  out  upon  the  quaking  fen  and  tread  his 
way  across  what  else  would  seem  a  God-forsaken  wilderness. 
"With  the  Bible  in  hand  and  the  eye  fixed  on  Christ,  the 
Lawgiver  and  Sovereign  of  the  kingdom  and  the  Leader 
of  the  sacramental  host,  order  springs  out  of  the  tangled 
mass  of  seeming  confusion.  And  it  is  one  of  the  grand 
arguments  of  hope,  in  the  spiritual  collisions  of  our  age, 
that  the  eye  of  foe  and  of  friend  has  alike  been  turned  so 
signally  on  Christ.  His  character  is  the  ver}'  core  of  Rev- 
elation ;  his  history  is  the  clue  of  all  God's  providence,  in 
the  long  past  and  through  the  dim,  far  future.  Now. 
from  every  school  of  faith,  and  almost,  it  might  be  said, 
of  unbelief  as  well  as  faith,  has  proceeded  some  new  biog- 
raphy of  this  Son  of  man  and  Son  of  God.  Paulus  and 
Strauss  and  Neander  and  Sepp  and  Farrar  and  Angus 
and  Andrews  and  Pressense  and  Ellicott  and  Renan  are 
but  a  small  part  of  the  throng  that  have  essayed  to  write 
the  wondrous  stor3\  And  to  the  errorist  and  the  man  of 
true  evansrelical  faith  come  the  Hebrew  and  the  Moham- 


94  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

medan  even,  adding  their  attempts  to  solve  the  mystery 
or  to  exphiin  the  revelation.  It  is  to  the  believer  cause 
of  gladness  and  holy  gratulation  that  the  onset  of  battle 
dashes  thus  in  our  own  age,  on  the  part  of  Christ's  adver- 
saries, upon  that  portion  of  the  Christian  lines  where,  as 
we  well  know,  moves  the  Invincible,  where  plans  the  In- 
follible,  where,  overruling  all  events,  comes  he  the  Inev- 
itable, our  Captain  of  salvation,  the  Lord  of  lords,  to 
whose  feet,  as  subject  or  as  penitent,  must  ultimately  con- 
verge all  the  schools  of  worldly  lore  and  all  the  colliding 
interests  of  all  the  nations  that  fret  their  little  day  over 
tlie  crust  of  our  tiny  planet.  Let  the  gainsayers  explain 
our  Christ  if  they  can,  without  shattering  their  philoso- 
phies upon  the  problem.  They  who  stumble  there  are 
broken.  And  if  the  unbeliever  must,  as  he  best  may, 
give  some  plausible  and  harmonious  solution  of  the 
appearance  and  character  of  this  Hebrew  Sage  and  Re- 
former, much  more  should  the  Christian  commence  his 
survey  of  the  course  of  the  churches  as  under  the  eyes 
of  this  his  Redeemer,  and  fasten  the  first  unrolling  fold 
as  between  the  lids  of  the  New  Testament.  The  king- 
dom of  God  is  a  growth.  The  church  of  Christ's  planting 
is  a  vine,  of  which  himself  is  the  stem,  and  all  the  saints 
of  all  the  ages  are  but  the  dependent  branches.  Were  I 
called  to  study  the  pine,  should  I  begin  with  it  as  it  lies 
under  my  hand,  in  the  Avood  of  this  desk,  after  wood- 
man's axe,  and  carpenter's  plane  and  hammer,  and  paint- 
er's brush  have  all  in  their  turn  passed  over  it,  giving  it 
new  outlines  and  place  and  hues  ?  Or  should  I  not 
rather  seek  the  tree  in  its  own  original  site,  the  rock  at  its 


THE   CHURCHES   AS   LEFT   BY   CHRIST.  95 

foot,  its  top  soaring  heavenward  in  the  free  air,  and  the 
storms  of  winter  iiowling  harmlessly  through  its  dark 
green  shrouds?  So  the  church  begins  her  story  in  the 
book  of  Inspiration,  and  in  the  course  and  character  of 
her  Divine  Head  and  Architect.  His  cross,  instead  of 
being  her  doom,  is  her  banner,  woven  into  her  creeds, 
inscribed  on  her  ordinances,  the  burden  of  her  every 
song,  and  the  plea  of  every  prayer  that  swells  from  her 
closets  or  her  sanctuaries,  or  rises  from  her  quiet  death- 
beds or  the  smoke  of  her  martyr-j^yres.  He,  the 
Saviour,  the  Alpha  of  creation  and  providence,  is,  es- 
pecially and  pre-eminently,  the  Alpha  of  all  true  church 
history. 

What  is  the  church?  In  her  future  state,  when  faultless 
and  complete,  all  the  elect  gathered  to  their  final  home ; 
in  that  church  triumphant,  which  is  the  attendant  of  the 
Bridegroom  Redeemer  in  the  last  stages  of  God's  prov- 
idence,— she  is  one  and  perfect.  In  her  intermediate  and 
earthly  stage  she  is,  according  to  the  ordinary  language 
of  Scripture,  many  and  imperfect,  made  up  of  local  con- 
gregations. In  these  may  be  intermingled  the  truly  con- 
verted and  the  self-deceived,  or  the  conscious  heartless 
pretender;  a  Simon  Magus  jostling  a  Simon  Peter.  But 
where  faithful  men,  holding  the  Head,  meet  in  Christ's 
name,  obeying  his  word,  and  imploring  and  receiving  the 
aids  of  his  Spirit,  and  observing  his  ordinances,  his  Bible 
recognizes  them  by  the  name  of  churches.  It  has  no 
hesitation  to  employ  this  term,  not  only  in  its  singular, 
but  also  in  its  plural  form ;  and  to  recognize  the  churches 
having  rest  in  Judea;  the  churches  of  the  Gentiles;  the 


96  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

churches  of  Galatia ;  the  churches  of  Macedonia ;  the 
churches  of  Asia. 

Some  seem  to  forget  this,  and  think  of  all  the  commu- 
nities of  primitive  believers  as  making  up  but  one  visible 
church.  To  this  new  imaginary  body  it  is  easy  to 
ascribe  a  legislation,  a  power  of  development,  and  a 
power  of  rejDression  and  excision,  which  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures do  not  attach  to  the  churches  as  apostles  move 
among  them.  If  the  views  of  our  Lord's  kingdom,  as 
we  have  reviewed  them,  be  just,  we  may  not  admit  that 
he  has  transmitted  his  legislative  and  kingly  power  to  any 
earthly  synod  or  representation.  It  was  consummate  and 
it  was  exhausted  in  his  own  Divine  Selfhood. 

Compare  with  this  view  the  language  of  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  and  clearest  intellects  our  race  probably  ever 
had,  the  devout  .lansenist,  Blaise  Pascal.  Speaking  of  the 
church  as  his  Catholic  training  presented  it  to  his  mind, 
and  regretting  its  modern  deficiencies  as  compared  with 
its  pristine  traits,  Pascal  has  said,  in  regard  to  baptism, 
the  ordinance  treated  when  we  last  met : 

"  It  is  not  to  the  church  that  should  be  imputed  the 
misfortunes  which  have  folloivcd  a  change  in  such  (her)  sal- 
utary discipline,  for  she  has  not  changed  in  spirit,  however 
she  may  have  changed  in  conduct.  Having  .  .  .  seen  that 
the  deferring  of  baptism  left  a  great  number  of  children  in 
the  curse  of  Adam,,  she  wished  to  deliver  them  from  this 
mass  of  perdition  by  hastening  the  aid  which  she  could 
give  them ;  and  this  good  mother  sees,  only  with  extreme 
regret,  that  what  she  devised  for  the  salvation  of  these  children 
has  become  the  occasion  for  the  destruction  of  adults.  .  .  .  She 


THE   CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY    CHRIST.  97 

does  not  accord  baptism  to  children  until  after  they  have 
declared  by  the  mouth  of  sponsors  that  they  desire  it,  that 
they  believe,  that  they  renounce  the  world  and  /Saton." 

Infant  baptism,  in  the  mind  of  this  great  thinker,  came 
in,  because  the  church  in  baptism  saw  the  remission  of 
sins  and  regeneration  ;  and  lest,  by  her  deferring  it  to  the 
age  of  actual  belief  and  until  the  fact  of  personal  renewal, 
the  infant  should  miss  heaven,  she  accepted  the  vicarious 
engagements  of  sponsors  on  behalf  of  these  their  voiceless 
charges;  but  the  consequence  was,  that  the  church  had  no 
longer,  as  in  early  times,  a  membership  who  had  actually 
and  personally  and  consciously  renounced  the  world  and 
the  flesh  and  the  devil.  Yet,  it  might  be  asked  of  the 
holy  Jansenist,  if  the  adults  were,  in  this  later  age  of  the 
church,  thus  in  unbroken  league  with  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil,  of  what  avail  could  such  ungodly  sponsor- 
ship, proffered  by  the  liege  adherents  of  this  evil  trinity, 
he  for  the  infant  in  whose  name  they  repeated  promises 
which  these  vow-takers  for  babes  had  never  kept  for  them- 
selves ?  And  who  gave  the  church  this  power  of  "  chang- 
ing her  disciplined^  to  protect  infants,  early  dying,  from  the 
danger  of  missing  heaven?  Was  that  danger  stated  in 
any  page  of  the  New  Testament?  Has  the  church  that 
power  of  "  development"  for  which  John  Henry  Newman 
has  in  our  own  day  pleaded?  Developing  baptismal 
regeneration  as  contingent  on  the  ordinance,  and  as  a 
protection,  antedating  baptism,  to  secure  such  right  to 
Paradise,  she  could  not,  in  the  first  stage  of  her  error, 
sever  the  one  ordinance  of  the  Christian  church  from  the 
other,  the  baptism  from  the  communion.     And  so,  for 

9  G 


98  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

centuries,  the  eiicharist  was  administered  to  infants. 
And  they  who  lean  on  early  Fathers  for  their  attestations 
on  behalf  of  infant  baptism  cannot,  in  consistency,  shut 
their  eyes  to  the  attestations  of  the  same  Fathers  on 
behalf  of  the  little  children  partaking  of  the  bread  and 
the  cup. 

As  presented  in  the  New  Testament,  the  churches  of 
true  disciples,  apostles  yet  surviving  to  oversee  and  guide 
them,  were  not  free  from  errors  and  from  scandals.  In 
Corinth  and  in  Galatia,  Paul  reprehends  them.  In  Crete, 
the  frank  apostle  quotes  an  old  harsh  proverb,  to  note  the 
besetting  sins  yet  clinging  to  converts.  In  the  churches 
of  Asia,  John  denounced  the  Jezebel  found  in  a  Christian 
assembly,  wielding  her  influence  and  swaying  her  parti- 
sans; and  disowned  the  synagogue  of  Satan,  as  he  termed 
them,  sheltering  themselves  under  Christian  forms  and 
names  and  surroundings. 

Both  the  Divine  Master  and  his  apostles  warned  against 
the  growth  of  evil  influences,  in  closest  proximity  to  or- 
dinances and  revelations  even.  There  were  Antichrists 
already  in  the  world.  One  Avho  "  letted,"  or  hindered, 
prevented  the  coming  development  of  a  great  Man  of  sin, 
the  dread  and  paramount  Antichrist,  who,  sitting  in  the 
temple  of  God,  should  give  himself  out  as  God.  Against 
these  dangers  the  primitive  disciples  Avere  to  keep  them- 
selves in  the  study  of  the  Scripture,  in  the  love  of  Christ, 
and  in  the  faithful  practice  of  the  institutions  as  the 
apostles  had  delivered  them. 

In  the  one  of  the  New  Testament  ordinances,  the  dis- 
ciple pledged  himself  to  a  continuous  remembrance  of  his 


THE   CHURCHES   AS   LEFT    BY   CHRIST.  99 

Saviour's  death; — that  ordinance  was  to  him  emblem, 
monument,  pledge,  and  earnest— a  rite  of  fourfold  aspect, 
presenting  emblematically  hope  for  the  flock  out  of  the 
Shepherd's  sacrifice — a  monument  of  the  mode  in  which, 
borne  to  the  dead,  that  Rescuer  had  emerged  out  of  the 
gloom.  Lord  of  the  living  and  the  dead — a  pledge,  by  the 
disciple,  as  solemnly,  deliberately  proclaiming  to  the  world 
of  impenitent  men,  and  to  the  gazing  world  of  angels  good 
and  angels  evil,  that  the  convert  believed  himself  partaker 
of  a  new  spiritual  life,  enfranchised  from  his  old  tyrant 
Satan  and  sealed  to  the  will  and  kingdom  of  his  Enfran- 
chiser  Christ— an  earnest,  for  the  disciple,  that,  like  as  his 
ej'es,  from  a  momentary  and  liquid  entombment,  looked 
out  afresh  on  the  Avorld  intact,  so  out  of  the  later  sep- 
ulchre, to  which  disease  and  perhaps  martyrdom  should 
consign  him,  he  looked  to  arise,  in  the  right  and  in  the 
likeness  of  his  ascended  Lord,  to  a  better  life  which  that 
Master  had  prepared  in  heaven  for  all  his  true  followers ; 
and  an  earnest  too  that,  as  in  obedience  to  Christ's  com- 
mands he  now  receives  from  the  Consoling  and  Illumining 
Spirit  fresh  cheer  and  hope,  so  hereafter  in  loyal  waiting 
he  may  expect  evermore  fresh  helping,  and  the  Hill  Diffi- 
culty open  out  upon  the  House  Beautiful  and  the  Delec- 
table Mountains. 

In  .addition  to  this  preliminary  ordinance  not  to  be  re- 
peated, a  single  and  final  act  of  consecration  to  Christ's 
laws  and  people,  he  was  to  repeat  frequently  another  ordi- 
nance, that  set  before  him  and  his  fellow-confessors  their 
spiritual  dependence  on  this  same  Saviour  for  continued 
grace.     Bread  of  heaven  and  cup  of  salvation,  they  all 


100  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

were  to  find  in  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God.  Withdrawn 
from  the  eye  and  ear  of  sense,  he.  the  God,  was  not  veiled 
from  the  opened  ear  and  unsealed  eye  of  faith.  On  this 
Lord,  as  the  day's  task  came,  they  leaned  for  the  day's 
strength.  Teachers  might  be  removed;  age  or  persecution 
might  smite  down  the  men  at  whose  lips  they  had  first 
heard  the  word  of  life ;  but,  in  the  grace  of  the  Ever- 
Living  Head,  they  were  assured  of  a  presence  that  no 
bereavement,  no  prisoning  walls,  no  remote  exile,  could 
isolate,  estrange,  or  bar  out  from  them.  Bound  to  each 
other  as  bearers  of  a  common  burden,  they  were  pledged 
to  sympathy  and  brotherhood  and  mutual  vigilance. 
But,  besides  their  obligations  to  the  mass  of  their  fellow- 
worshippers,  they  had  regard  to  the  teachers — artisans  it 
might  be  or  scholars,  men  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  and 
rich  in  spiritual  experience — whom  God  had  set  over 
them  as  under-shepherds.  Far  as  their  admonitions  and 
instructions  were  warranted  by  Scripture,  to  these,  their 
teachers,  they  were  pledged  to  give  heed,  as  to  those  set 
over  them  in  the  Lord,  and  watching  for  their  souls  as 
those  who  must  give  account.  When  the  providence  and 
Spirit  of  God  called  any  of  them  to  a  distant  field  of  toil 
and  witness,  the  contributions  and  the  prayers  of  their 
fellow-confessors  should  help  the  journey,  and  sustain  the 
messenger  in  the  remote  scenes  where  his  testimony 
might  be  delivered. 

They  Avere  laborers  and  light-bearers,  for  the  world  as 
well  as  for  the  church,  gathering,  by  counsel  and  example 
and  winning  tenderness  and  serene  patience,  the  regard, 
and,  if  it  might  be,  the  souls,  of  the  unconverted  around 


THE   CHUECHES   AS   LEFT   BY   CHRIST.  101 

them.  The  church  was  a  candlestick  giving  light — a 
pharos  shedding  its  beams  along  a  perilous  coast  and 
over  a  stormy  sea.  The  embodied  churches  cared  for  the 
nations  and  looked  to  see  the  ingathering  of  multitudes, 
won  to  the  same  Paradise,  and  aroused  by  the  appeals  of 
the  same  Redeeming  Brother,  the  same  Avenging  and 
Inevitable  Judge. 

The  church  had,  as  a  local  body,  its  right  not  only, 
but  its  covenanted  duty,  of  governing,  under  the  rules  of 
Christ's  statute-book,  in  the  presence  of  the  Omnipresent 
Head,  and  by  the  aid  of  tliat  Paraclete  promised  as  his 
gift  and  officiating  as  his  representative,  the  body  of  fel- 
low-disciples. The  reproof,  the  rebuke,  the  exhortation, 
the  encouragement,  and,  if  it  were  necessary,  the  excision 
from  the  number  of  the  faithful,  were  among  the  services 
for  which  they  had  been  enlisted  and  solemnly  sworn. 

The  name  "sacrament "  among  these  Pagan-Roman  mas- 
ters meant  the  soldier's  solemn  oath  of  loyalty  to  his  stand- 
ard in  the  rejDOse  of  the  camp  and  the  rush  of  battle.  Chris- 
tians early  learned  to  apply  the  term  as  denoting  that  the 
ordinances  of  discipleship  pledged  each  church-member 
to  a  loyal,  lifelong,  and  fearless  aggression  upon  the  world, 
as  massed  in  spiritual  revolt  against  its  rightful  Lord. 

What  safeguard,  it  may  be  asked,  was  there  for  true 
unity?  Needed  there  any  better,  could  there  be  any 
higher,  than  the  covenanted  supervision  of  him  who 
walked,  with  unwearied  tread  and  unblenching  eye,  amid 
the  golden  candlesticks,  and  who,  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
assured  his  loyal  followers  that  this  his  care  should  not 
falter?    The  Godhead   was  pledged  to  the  oneness  and 


102  T.ECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

invariableness  and  all-sufficiency  of  the  great  Source  of 
their  life  and  growth.  There  was,  however,  yet  other 
wreath  of  perpetual  union  between  the  devout  church  on 
the  earth  and  the  great  Theme  of  their  worship  in  the 
heavens.  It  was — in  the  Avithdrawal  of  his  own  bodily  and 
visible  presence — found  from  the  nearer  presence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  one  Spirit  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and 
to  be  implored  and  obtained  by  all  the  godly.  To  them, 
the  Paraclete's  omnipresence  was  the  seal  of  true  per- 
manence and  of  real  interior  oneness.  Author,  as  well  as 
Expounder,  of  all  Scripture,  he  would  keep  in  the  bond  of 
peace  and  brotherly  accord  his  own  Israel,  of  many  earthly 
ancestries  and  many  terrestrial  dialects;  yet,  in  his  power^ 
they  would  be  assured  of  a  force  that  should  melt  and  re- 
cast them  into  one  incandescent  and  floAving  unison.  In 
virtue  of  it,  the  child  of  an  imbruted  Heathenism,  in  our 
days,  is  made  one  in  heart  with  the  Psalmist  of  Hebrew 
lineage,  and  with  the  confessors  of  primitive  Christianity, 
and  with  the  German,  the  French,  the  British  Christian, 
.whose  ancestry  and  training  were  so  divergent  from  his 
own.  One  Spirit  stretches  its  unbroken  accord  over  the 
wastes  of  the  centuries;  and  the  church  of  the  one  God  is 
one — radically,  cordially,  intrinsically,  and  inseparably  one 
in  him,  the  Jehovah,  holding  Christ  the  one  Head,  having 
all  one  Father,  and  keeping  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace. 

Is  there  power,  it  may  be  asked,  in  these  narrow,  parish- 
bound,  local  communities  of  the  regenerate,  to  effect  har- 
monious feeling  over  large  tracts  of  territory?  We  an- 
swer, the  writers  on  civil  government  and  national  growth 


THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY   CHRIST.  103 

in  our  own  age  are  discerning  in.  just  such  local,  self- 
knowing,  self-ruling  neighborhoods  the  secret  of  republi- 
can prosperity  in  the  New  World,  and  the  chief  haunt 
and  refuge  of  social  order  under  the  despotism  of  the  Old 
World.  De  Tocqueville  found  the  talisman  of  the  free- 
dom of  our  Revolutionary  forefathers  in  the  preparation 
which  the  town-meeting,  with  its  care  of  the  local  needs 
and  the  local  wrongs,  had  given  those  fathers  for  the  due 
administration  of  a  republic  when  it  was  cast  upon  them. 
So  Sir  Henry  Maine  finds,  in  the  village  communities  of 
old  India,  a  form  of  self-rule  that  has  preserved  most  of 
the  peace  and  real  order  of  the  Eastern  nations  under  the 
successive  waves  of  invasion  that  have  gone  over  their 
land.  "Their  rulers  shall  be  of  themselves"  was  God's 
promised  blessing  to  his  people  when  obedient.  A  local, 
independent,  self-governed  community  was  the  original 
form  of  polity  for  the  primitive  Christian  church. 

But  man,  in  his  temerity,  has  undertaken  to  develop 
and  to  improve  and  to  expand  upon  the  handiwork  of 
God.  What  has  been  the  result  ?  As  the  faith  took  hold 
on  individual  disciples  in  the  great  cities  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  it  became  the  practice  of  too  many  to  lower  the 
spiritual  requirements,  that  they  might  more  easily  and 
rapidly  augment  the  external  discipleship.  Wealth  and 
worldly  honor  flowed  in  ui:)on  the  religious  bodies  thus 
enlarged ;  but  the  spirit  of  worldly  aggrandizement  took, 
Avith  too  many,  the  j^lace  of  the  fear  of  God,  and  of  the 
lov'C  for  the  truth.  Christian  leaders  affected  the  pomp 
and  the  prerogatives  and  the  severities  of  pagan  magis- 
trates.    Synods,  grown  up  at  first  in  the  purpose,  it  may 


104  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

be,  of  cultivating  a  brotherly  accord  and  co-operation, 
affected  legislative  powers ;  and  pronounced,  in  their  own 
fancied  eminence,  their  edicts  and  their  anathemas.  The 
humble  preacher  was  replaced  by  the  arrogant  prelate. 
Festivals  of  a  foul  and  reckless  heathenism  were  imported 
into  the  Christian  ritual  and  service,  to  attract  and  recon- 
cile a  rabble  of  unregenerate  worshippers.  A  thin  var- 
nish of  Christian  names  and  usages  was  used  to  convert 
huge  blocks  of  paganism  into  buttresses  of  the  Christian 
church. 

The  Satan,  who,  as  a  Christian  Father  has  so  justly  said, 
is  "  the  ape  of  God,"  wise  and  shrewd  enough  to  see  the 
unmatched  sagacity  of  divine  methods,  and  blind  and 
callous  enough  to  affect  a  rivalry,  alike  unwarranted  and 
baneful,  with  the  one  and  holy  Jehovah,  saw  it  his 
interest,  when  persecution  could  no  longer  intimidate  the 
advancing  churches  of  Christ,  to  shift  his  engines  and 
affect  to  be  the  ready  patron  of  what  he  could  now  best 
clog,  by  climbing  to  its  chief  places  of  council  and  domina- 
tion. As  Hawthorne,  in  one  of  his  grim  but  most  ex- 
pressive stories  phrases  it,  Beelzebub  undertook  to  run 
special  trains  on  a  railroad  line  which  deftly  jDassed  and 
evaded  the  Wicket  Gate,  and  ran  through  the  Valley  of 
the  Shadow  of  Death  to  the  Celestial  City,  himself  chief 
engineer  and  stoker;  but  somehow  failing  to  land  his 
passengers  at  the  promised  gates  of  the  heavenly  Jerusa- 
lem ;  and,  by  a  dark  tunnel,  at  the  spot  where  Bunyan's 
Ignorance  disappeared — a  tunnel  somewhat  badly  lighted 
— contriving  quietly  to  shunt  off  the  cars  to  a  place  which 
the  old-fashioned  disciples  had  called  Tophet. 


THE   CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY    CHRIST.  105 

Tlie  Jewish  polity  was  a  scheme  of  surpassing  force  and 
skill  for  its  purposes  of  preserving,  in  a  special  people, 
the  light  of  the  divine  oracles  and  covenant,  till  tlie 
times  were  ripe  for  the  manifestation  of  tlie  long-expect- 
ed Christ.  Meanwhile,  by  solemn  rites  and  a  gorgeous 
tenjple  and  a  separate  priesthood  and  one  central  local 
sanctuary,  the  nation  W'Cre  trained  to  be  the  custodians 
of  the  incipient  and  germinant  gospel,  until  the  era  came 
wdien  bud  was  to  burst  into  full  flower,  and  the  Trust  of 
one  people  to  be  proclaimed  as  the  Desire  of  all  nations. 
When  he  came,  he  put  away  this  local,  central  sanctu- 
ary and  this  separate  priesthood.  The  sacrifices  received 
their  fulfilment  and  their  absolution  in  the  one  oblation 
upon  Calvary  proclaimed  as  final  when  the  Victim  cried, 
"It  is  finished!"  and  endorsed  by  the  Father  as  effectual 
in  the  descending  blaze  of  the  Spirit  on  Pentecost.  If 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  have  any  force,  its  meaning  is 
that  Christ  is  henceforward  the  one  true  Priest.  His  peo- 
ple all,  the  regenerate  hearers  as  well  as  the  regenerate 
preachers,  are  priests  unto  God,  and  are  also  kings  as  w^ll 
as  priests ;  but  it  is  not,  in  the  case  of  human  pastor  or 
disciple,  a  secular  royalty  or  an  Aaronic  sacerdocy.  That 
dropped  away  with  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  with  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jews  and  Avith  the  establishment  of 
God's  kingdom  in  Christ,  just  as  the  last  year's  husks 
scaled  off  and  disappeared  from  the  bread-corn  that 
furnished  the  loaves  of  to-day's  repast  on  your  tables. 
The  new  economy  eliminated  it.  But  because  that  polity 
of  sacrifice  and  priesthood  and  central  temple,  which  God 
used,  for  their  fit  time,  and  then  superseded  them,  w^as  so 


106  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

grand  and  wise  a  provision  for  the  establishment  of  a 
temporal  domination,  Satan,  the  mimic,  grafted  the  out- 
grown and  obsolete  economy  of  Judaism  on  his  travesty 
of  the  Christian  economy.  A  pompous  ritual ;  and  sacri- 
fices many,  so  called ;  and  a  great  central  religious  fane,  the 
seat  of  special  power  over  all  people, — were,  in  defiance  of 
apostolical  prediction  and  apostolical  warning,  made  the 
enginery  of  one  sitting  in  the  temple  of  God  and  giving 
himself  out  as  God. 

When  a  nation  was  willing  to  allow  this  corrupt  form 
of  the  Christian  church  to  bewitch  and  control  it,  the 
state  drank,  in  the  terrible  language  of  the  Apocalypse,  of 
the  wine  of  the  Sorceress.  It  was  made  the  duty  of  the 
secular  power  to  aid,  by  fines,  exiles,  and  prisons  and 
martyr-fires,  the  edicts  of  the  nominal  but  apostate 
church. 

Was  it  a  scene  of  real  peace  for  the  nations  ?  On  the 
contrary,  some  of  the  darkest  pages  of  modern  history  are 
reeking  and  bloodsodden  from  the  rivalries  and  wars,  the 
scandals  and  enormities  and  massacres,  thus  occasioned. 
Was  it  real  unity,  when,  in  the  rivalry  between  the  metro- 
politans of  York  and  Canterbury,  in  mediaeval  England, 
the  one  called  the  primate  of  England,  the  other  enlarg- 
ing his  titles  to  be  called  the  primate  of  all  England,  and 
Avhen  all  the  mitred  hierarchy  had  assembled  in  solemn 
convocation, — was  it  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  the  lowly  and 
the  cross-bearing,  when  the  one  of  these  great  churchmen, 
to  prevent  his  rival  from  acquiring,  by  any  seeming  sub- 
mission on  his  part,  the  superiority  over  him,  as  that  rival 
filled  the  chief  central  seat,  deposited  himself  on  the  knees 


THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT   BY   CHRIST.  107 

and  in  the  lap  of  his  fellow-archbishop,  thus  indicating 
his  stern  resolve  to  make  no  implied  renunciation  of  his 
own  equality,  if  not  superiority  ? 

The  state  gives  power,  but  she  imposes  checks,  as  well 
as  pays  revenues.  And  when,  in  our  own  colonial  days, 
the  English  Established  Church  sought,  far  back  as  the 
times  of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  next  by  Bishop  Atterbury, 
the  elegant  friend  of  Pope  and  Swift,  and  now  by  Bishop 
Butler,  the  author  of  the  immortal  "Analogy,"  and  now 
by  Archbishop  Seeker,  the  extension  of  the  episcopacy  to 
these  American  colonies,  how  loth  was  the  home  govern- 
ment to  make  the  required  expenditure,  and  how  averse 
the  Puritan  colonists  to  accept  the  restraints  and  the  cost- 
liness of  new  and  colonial  sees. 

Local  churches,  self-controlled  and  self-sustained,  had 
preceded  by  far  the  wealthy  imperial  government  in  the 
task  of  evangelizing  our  shores.  So  when  India  Avith  its 
millions  passed,  by  the  enterprise  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany and  the  valor  of  Clive,  under  the  sceptre  of  Britain, 
how  reluctant  were  merchant-traders  in  the  far  East,  and 
British  legislators  in  the  far  Western  isle,  to  permit,  much 
less  to  equip,  an  evangelizing  force  for  the  myriads  of  their 
new  subjects.  Pagan  and  Mohammedan. 

And  when  the  feeble  churches  of  our  own  English 
brethren  adventured  in  the  work,  how  scant  were  their 
stores,  how  grim  and  savage  the  dislike  they  encountered 
from,  the  colonial  governors;  how  fierce  and  rancorous  the 
scorn  that  rained  down  upon  them  from  the  high  places 
of  literature.  But  strong  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  free 
in  their  local  church  government,  Carey  and  his  brethren 


108  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

went  forth,  with  a  few  paltry  pounds  in  the  treasury,  to 
confront  the  Brahmin  and  the  old  Sanscrit  lore,  and  the 
Avidow's  suttee,  and  customs  and  philosophies  that  were 
already  old  and  solidly  anchored  in  the  national  habits 
in  the  days  when  a  Daniel  was  yet  living  in  Shushan. 
Denied  a  home  on  British  soil,  the}'  accepted  and  effected 
a  lodgment — like  some  tiny  sparrows  building  their  nests 
in  the  pediment  of  some  tall  temple  whose  gates  they 
might  not  be  allowed  to  pass — on  the  little  Danish  ledge 
of  Serampore,  skirting  closely  but  timidly  the  j^roud  and 
broad  colonial  realm  of  Britain. 

It  was  a  victory  for  tlie  local,  congregational,  undow- 
ered Christian  cliurch  Avhen  they  went  forth  thus.  Yet 
the  glory  was  never  arrogated  by  these  good  but  humble 
men  as  being  their  own.  The  Sanscrit  lore  of  the  world 
is  in  their  debt.  British  domination,  assured  by  their 
Havelock,  in  the  day  of  its  terrible  peril,  against  odds  the 
most  fearful ;  modern  missions,  thus  encouraged  and  fol- 
lowed up  by  other  churches,  undowered  and  established 
as  well;  the  souls  they  have  won,  the  Scriptures  they  have 
translated  and  scattered,  and  the  social  reforms  they  have 
aided  to  inaugurate, — all  these  emphatically  attest  the 
wisdom  of  leaving  our  churches,  as  Christ  himself  left 
them,  bound  to  be  scriptural,  bound  to  be  spiritual,  tliat 
they  may  thus  be  one,  thoroughly,  permanently,  and  in- 
separably one. 

And  such  unity  it  is  that  makes  certain  the  true  free- 
dom of  the  churches.  When  Wycliffe  sent  his  "poor  par- 
sons," as  they  were  called,  men  with  long  russet  robes,  to 
preach  the  gospel  through  England,  the  great  Reformer 


TILE   CHURCHES   AS   LEFT   BY  CHRIST.  109 

shrewdly  boasted  that  these  true  "  watch-dogs,"  as  in 
liomely  phrase  he  described  them,  were  "  not  chained  to 
the  kennel."  In  market-places  and  by  roadsides,  wher- 
ever they  could  win  hearers,  they  raised  their  voices  and 
delivered  their  testimony.  The  Reformer's  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  into  the  English  tongue  and  the  toils 
of  these  humble  teachers  brought  on  the  great  Lollard 
movement.  It  spread  into  Bohemia,  then,  by  royal  mar- 
riage-ties, connected  with  England;  and  Huss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague  were  among  the  fruits,  Seemingl}''  quenched 
for  the  time  in  blood,  yet,  as  dominant  and  established 
churches  did  not  commence  it,  as  parish  boundaries  could 
not  limit  it,  so  prisons  and  pillories  and  stakes  could  not 
utterly  extinguish  it. 

Long  after,  when  Methodism  under  Whitefield  and  the 
two  WeslcA^s  invaded  the  religious  apathy  and  stagnation 
of  Christian  Britain  and  reached  the  British  colonies  on 
these  Western  shores,  it  was  again  as  free  local  churches 
that  the  converts  were  gathered  by  the  resolute  and  lov- 
ing itineracy.  The  heart,  set  on  fire  by  the  love  of  Christ, 
Avaited  not  to  ascertain  stipend  or  to  bargain  for  cosy  har- 
boring and  quiet  hearing.  The  well  of  living  water,  as  the 
Master  promised,  upbursting  by  the  Spirit's  energy  and 
the  Saviour's  prompting  in  the  regenerate  heart,  shot  up 
its  crystal  column  of  gladness  and  refreshing,  w^hen,  alas ! 
it  provoked  but  too  often  priestly  scorn  and  the  hootings 
and  brutal  maltreatment  of  the  mob.  Whitefield  bore  to 
his  death-day  scars  received  in  Ireland  for  thus  preaching 
the  gospel ;  and  the  Wesleys  were  more  than  once  in  dan- 
ger of  sacrificing  life  in  those  labors,  then  so  denounced, 

10 


110  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

now  so  generally  and  justly  acknowledged  as  a  blessing  to 
the  nation. 

The  Methodists  in  their  leaders  were  church  clergymen, 
but  the  church  generally  disfavored  or  openly  and  fiercely 
condemned  them.  They  acted  on  the  great  principle  that 
the  isolated  church  and  the  isolated  believer  have  a  right 
to  proclaim  the  common  salvation  to  a  world  sinking, 
if  unwarned,  into  a  common  and  speedy  perdition.  As 
Baptists,  we  do  not  claim  their  honors ;  but  we  rejoice  in 
the  manful  and  heroic  exemplification  they  gave  of  the 
great  principle  that  no  church,  national  and  state  en- 
dowed, has  a  right  to  hinder  b}''  its  edicts,  or  its  parish 
bounds,  or  its  fines,  or  its  prisons,  the  course  of  free 
churches  in  proclaiming  a  free  gospel. 

Our  own  Baptist  brethren  in  Virginia  and  in  New  Eng- 
land brought  themselves  into  the  danger  not  only,  but 
into  the  endurance,  of  loss  and  imprisonment,  when  they 
thus,  in  the  homely  image  used  by  Wyclifie,  burst  the 
chain,  foreswore  the  kennel,  and  carried  their  watch-dog 
mission  wherever  the  poor  flock  of  Christ  were  wandering, 
like  lost  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  and  with  none  to  care 
for  them — wherever  the  great  enemy  was  driving  his  wolf- 
hunt  of  error  and  sin  across  the  land. 

To  some,  it  may  have  seemed  that  all  these  are  truths 
too  generally  accepted  to  need  that  they  be  again  repeated. 
But  if,  as  others  hold,  all  who  have  been  baptized,  no 
matter  by  what  sect  or  by  what  errorist,  are  in  that  fact 
made  irrevocably  subject  to  the  control  of  one  Christian 
church,  and  if  the  body  claiming  that  oneness,  and  the  ex- 
clusive right  to  the  name  Christ's  own  church,  by  recent 


THE   CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY    CHRIST.  Ill 

and  solemn  enactment  proclaims  that  the  state  is  bound, 
when  the  church  shall  think  it  expedient,  to  enforce  sub- 
mission to  her  authority  by  similar  penalties,  it  will  evi- 
dently follow  that  the  question  of  true  church  unity  and 
real  church  independence  becomes  a  burning  question, 
one  of  high  moment  to  us  as  American  citizens. 

The  Spirit  of  God  has  not,  in  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
waited  for  the  assent  of  Hebrew  Sanhedrim  and  Roman 
Senate  before  he  precipitated  his  influences  on  the 
churches  of  God.  Where  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  is 
liberty.  This  has  been  the  old  apostolic  testimony.  It 
has,  through  all  the  course  of  the  intervening  centuries, 
been  the  experience  of  Christ's  loyal  and  regenerate 
people.  With  his  book  as  the  guide,  and  with  a  ministry 
and  private  membership  of  his  anointing,  the  church  has, 
as  her  birthright,  imprescriptible  and  indefeasible  freedom 
to  make  her  testimony  wide  as  is  the  range  of  her  prayers, 
and  to  broaden  her  prayers  to  the  full  compass  of  the 
Master's  generous  promises. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  held  that  the  churches  of  our  denom- 
ination had  been  memorably  useful.  Unhappily  tinged 
with  grave  error  as  was  his  own  mind,  that  lofty  intellect 
pondered  the  prophetic  portions  of  God's  word;  and  he 
wrote  on  the  Book  of  Daniel  a  treatise  yet  reprinted.  He 
was  accustomed  to  hold,  that  the  Baptists  and  the  Arians 
—  or  at  least  the  Eusebians,  a  special  division  of  the 
Arians — were  the  Two  Witnesses  named  in  John's  Apoc- 
alypse. We  have  this  statement  on  the  authority  of 
William  W^histon,  who  succeeded  Newton  in  his  profes- 
sorship at  Cambridge,  a  man  wrongheaded  but  singularly 


112  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

lionest,  and  as  little  capable  of  intentional  misrepresent- 
ation as  Goldsmith's  imaginary  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 
Whiston,  who  in  his  own  Life  more  than  once  repeats 
the  statement,  adds  to  it  the  remark  that  he,  Whiston, 
■was  both  Baptist  and  Arian,  but  he  did  not,  as  did  his 
illustrious  friend,  hold  the  Baptists  to  be  identical  with 
one  of  the  two  witnesses.  Whiston  rather  inclined,  with 
the  learned  Bishop  Lloyd  before  him,  and  with  many 
later  scholars,  to  regard  the  two  witnesses  testifying  for 
God  and  slain  by  Antichrist,  as  being  the  Waldenses  and 
Albigenses.  Heylin,  the  learned  but  bigoted  biographer 
of  Archbishop  Laud,  was  loth,  as  he  said,  to  follow  the 
Waldenses  and  Albigenses  into  "  their  conventicles "  for 
the  succession  of  witnesses  to  God's  true  gospel. 

But,  apart  from  all  these  interpretations,  it  is  deserving 
of  consideration,  that,  mysterious  as  is  the  last  book  of 
the  New  Testament,  yet  amid  its  gorgeous  and  dazzling 
images,  hard  to  interpret,  are  interspersed  some  of  the 
most  emphatic  and  direct  utterances  as  to  the  future  and 
celestial  blessedness  of  God's  people.  The  poorest  and 
simplest  of  God's  people  have  been  enlightened  and  de- 
lighted by  these  intermingling  promises,  embedded  but 
not  beclouded  in  these  mysterious  prophecies.  There  is 
a  special  blessing,  pronounced  by  the  Divine  Author  of 
the  book,  on  those  who  study  it.  Of  course,  examples, 
dire  and  many,  recent  and  flagrant,  warn  against  stud\^- 
ing  in  self-confidence,  and  uttering  our  views  and  counting 
the  years  in  precipitate  heedlessness. 

Much  of  the  imagery  of  the  Apocalypse  is  reproduced 
from  prophetic  books  of  the  Old  Testament.     In  the  ear- 


THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT    BY    CHRIST.  113 

lier  volume,  the  golden  candlestick  is  one,  as  Zachariah 
saw  it;  but  fed  b}^  two  golden  olive  trees,  emptying  their 
golden  oil  by  golden  pipes  into  the  candlestick,  which 
needed  this  feeding  to  keep  up  its  blazing.  God  presents, 
to  the  view  of  the  apostle  John,  two  candlesticks  as  well 
as  two  olive  trees,  where  Zachariah  had  discerned  but  one 
candlestick,  with  a  twofold  supply  from  olive  trees,  not 
waiting  for  olive-gatherer  or  olive-press  to  cull  and  crush 
their  fruit,  but  shedding  the  richness  of  their  juices  di- 
rectl}'  into  the  lamp-fires.  It  has  seemed  to  us  not  im- 
possible that  God  may  have  intended  to  symbolize  and 
emphasize  thus  the  peculiar  distinction  of  preaching  in 
the  church  of  the  New  Dispensation.  The  written  Scrip- 
tures were  the  source  of  guidance,  and  the  reservoir  of 
divine  inspiration,  to  the  earlier  of  the  dispensations. 
But  the  King,  now  at  last  setting  up  his  actual  sover- 
eignty on  the  earth  in  his  own  church,  made  the  ministry 
its  great  means  of  edification  and  increase,  and  of  spirit- 
ual aggression  as  against  the  world.  It  was  a  new  and 
additional  olive  tree.  The  light  of  divine  truth,  in  the 
character  and  story  and  dominion  of  Christ,  is  to  shine 
steadily  and  with  enhanced  brightness  over  our  own  and 
all  other  lands.  It  is  to  be,  under  the  plenary  influences 
of  the  Spirit,  fed,  on  the  one  side,  by  the  written  oracles, 
the  record  of  the  utterances  of  the  old  prophets  of  the 
Pen;  on  the  other,  it  is  to  be  fed  by  the  evangelist  and 
pastor,  if  truly  commissioned  of  God,  as  his  prophets  of 
the  Voice.  They  have  no  right  to  affect,  or  the  merest 
approach  to  the  authority  of,  the  inspired  prophet  and 

apostle,  whose   testimony  the  Bible  preserves.      But,  if 
10  «  H 


114  LECTURES    ON    BATTIST    HISTORY. 

truly  cjilled  of  God  and  commissioned  by  the  Spirit,  they 
are  to  be  mighty  in  the  Scripture,  and,  as  was  said  of  an 
old  worthy,  "men  of  one  book:" — thus  spiritual,  and  dis- 
tilling in  a  devout  and  lifelong  study  the  lessons  of  Holy 
Writ,  as  by  the  living  voice,  into  the  ears  and  hearts  of  the 
church  and  the  world,  they  cherish  the  flame  that  God  lit; 
and  that,  once  having  lit  it,  the  faithfulness  and  veracity 
and  unchangeableness  and  unity  of  the  Godhead  will, 
evermore,  guard,  replenish,  and  heighten. 

But  he  Avill  not  so  guard  it  but  that,  for  a  season, 
under  terrible  forces  of  error  and  persecution,  the  two 
witnesses  will  seem  slain,  though  scorn  will  require  that 
their  corpses  lie  unburied  and  dishonored.  An  age  will 
come  when  the  Scripture  may  be  withdrawn,  when,  under 
the  abounding  influence  of  infidelity  or  scepticism,  a  liv- 
ing ministry  will  have  also  ceased.  Preaching  and  Bible- 
reading  will  together  have  gone  down.  But  the  corpses 
will  lie,  like  the  corpse  of  the  Saviour  shut  in  the  sepul- 
chre loaned  by  Joseph  of  Arimathea.  Faithful  women 
and  mourning  apostles  came  to  embalm  the  Redeemer. 
No  mourning,  but  wild  revelling,  will  shake  the  nations 
over  the  two  witnesses  laid  unburied  in  the  streets  of  the 
great  city.  But  the  earth  shall  hold  its  merry-making, , 
and  send  its  mocking  gifts  over  the  remains  of  the  two 
prophets  that  had  tormented  the  earth  for  a  brief  space 
only.     Then  shifts  the  scene. 

Amid  the  riot  and  the  din  of  the  universal  triumph, 
the  Spirit,  who  needs  not  man  and  waits  not  for  man,  will 
but  have  waited  the  predestined  and  narrow  bound  for 
the  great  and  outbreaking  gush  of  terrene   and  infernal 


THE    CHURCHES    AS    LEFT   BY    CHRIST.  115 

enmity  to  display  its  strength.  Three  days  and  three 
nights  were  the  limit  of  the  Saviour's  own  subjection  to 
the  tomb.  Three  days  and  a  half — literal  or  figurative 
time — will  be  the  space  and  breadth  for  the  seeming  aboli- 
tion of  Bible  and  ministry.  The  light  blazes  again  ;  it  is 
tlie  light  of  doom.  Where  the  voice  of  worldly  hate  had 
been,  "  Lie  there  and  rot,"  comes  now  a  voice,  falling 
from  the  skies.    It  is,  "  Come  up  hither." 

The  churches  of  Christ  have  their  toils  and  their  inev- 
itable sufferings;  but  their  ultimate  lot  is  translation  to 
the  celestial  city.  The  Scriptures,  gathering  new  evidence 
from  every  storm  of  Antichristian  proscription,  and  of 
skeptical  derision  and  blasphemy,  which  they  have 
encountered  or  shall  yet  encounter,  are  not  to  be  deserted 
and  disclaimed  by  their  Author,  throned  on  high.  The 
record,  true  here,  shall  be  remembered  and  explained 
more  vividly  and  resplendently  there.  The  true  heralds 
of  the  cross,  working  not  for  gain  or  power  or  worldly 
praise,  if  truly  anointed  of  God,  shall  have  their  record 
and  reward  on  high. 

And  in  that  fair  city,  of  which  Christ  is  both  the  Temple 
and  Light,  it  shall  be  seen,  that  thrice  blessed  were  the 
Bible  telling  on  earth  of  the  salvation,  the  pulpits  vocal  in 
earth's  many  dialects  of  this  our  faith,  and  the  churches 
who,  pondering  those  oracles  and  heeding  those  teachers, 
pass  ultimately  from  the  lesser  and  dimmer  beamings 
of  earth,  to  the  cloudless  and  perpetual  splendor  of  the 
Beatific  Vision. 


V. 

OUR  CHURCHES 

TJIsrDEE  THE  BAN  OF  AI^TIOHRIST. 


OUR  CHURCHES 

UNDEE  THE  BAIN^   OF  Al^TICHEIST. 


It  was,  but  a  few  years  since,  said  by  a  distinguished 
English  convert  to  Romanism,  Archbishop  Manning, 
wlio  has  more  recently  been  made  a  cardinal,  when 
speaking  of  the  communion  to  which  he  had  attached 
himself,  that  "men  now  acknowledge  it  to  be  either 
Christ  or  Antichrist."*  A  few  lines  after  he  adds:  "The 
Catholic  Church  is  either  the  masterpiece  of  Satan  or 
the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God ;"  yet  a  few  pages  fiirther 
on  he  represents  men  as  concluding  in  its  favor,  "  though 
at  first  they  think  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
Antichrist." 

Familiar  as  is  the  term  to  the  readers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, so  ghastly  is  the  shadow  it  is  there  made  to  cast 
upon  the  purity  and  growth  of  Christ's  true  churches,  that 
some  in  our  own  times  dread  allusion  to  the  phrase  even, 
as  bringing  back  controversies  which  have  rent  nations  and 
guttered  more  than  one  region  of  the  earth  as  with  rivers  of 
blood.  But  if  the  beloved  disciple  testified  that  there  were 
even  then  many  Antichrists  come  into  the  world,  warn- 
ing, however,  that  another,  more  vast  and  heinous,  was  to 

*  Led.  on  the  Fourfold  Sovereignty  of  God,  Lond.  1871,  p.  171. 

liy 


120  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

come,  whose  full  manifestation  was  hindered,  or,  in  the  old 
English  phrase,  "  letted,^^  by  a  power  yet  dominant — if,  as 
the  old  Fathers  held,  the  power  so  obstructing  was  the  great 
pagan  empire  of  Rome,  it  is  matter  of  moment  to  the  stu- 
dent of  history  and  the  reverent  tracker  of  the  course  of  the 
Divine  Providence  in  the  rule  of  nations  to  ascertain  what 
great  influence  for  evil  grew  up  into  its  ill-omened  domin- 
ion on  the  waning  and  overthrow  of  the  old  Paganism  of  the 
great  heathen  empire.  If  Hobbes,  the  old  infidel  of  the 
days  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Restoration,  said,  with 
that  command  of  pithy  English  of  which  his  writings  afford 
many  a  specimen,  that  Papal  Rome  was  but  the  ghost  of 
the  old  Roman  Paganism  sitting  crowned  on  the  sepulchre 
of  the  early  heathen  dominion,  the  wording  might  be  his, 
but  the  thought  Avas  one  familiar  to  all  the  schools  of  Eu- 
ropean Protestantism.  The  martyrs  of  Southern  France 
and  Northern  Italy,  of  Holland  and  Germany  and  England, 
of  Bohemia  and  Scotland,  in  the  study  of  their  Bibles, 
had  learned  to  pronounce  the  great  power  claimed  and 
wielded  by  the  Roman  Church,  the  New  Testament  Baby- 
lon, the  mother  of  abominations,  to  be  the  counterfeit  and 
antagonist  of  Christ.  Bishop  Cox,  one  of  the  compilers  of 
the  Liturgy  of  the  Anglican  Established  Church,  writing 
from  England  in  1559,  whilst  Elizabeth  filled  the  throne, 
to  friends  on  the  Continent,  says,  "  We  .  .  .  are  thunder- 
ing forth  in  our  pulpits,  and  especially  before  our  queen 
Elizabeth,  that  the  Roman  pontiff  is  truly  Antichrist."  A 
nobleman  of  that  house  of  Russell  which,  so  early  and 
so  long,  has  distinguished  itself  for  zeal  in  the  behalf  of 
Protestantism,  the  Earl  of  Bedford,  in  the  next  year,  1560, 


UNDER   THE    P.AN    OF    AXTICIIRIST.  121 

writing  to  Gualtcr,  a  Swiss  Reformer,  prays  that  Christ 
may  prosper  the  Swiss  Christians  in  their  endeavors  to 
"  destroy  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  the  pomp  of  the  world, 
and  the  power  of  Antichrist." 

On  the  other  hand,  a  Roman  Catholic  gentleman,  Am- 
brose Lisle  Philippe,  of  Grace  Dieu  Manor,  about  twenty 
years  ago  published  a  vohnne  intended  to  prove  Moham- 
med the  great  enemy  of  truth  who  was  veiled  under  this 
portentous  title.     One  of  the  most  learned  of  all  volumes 
on  these  topics  is  that  in  folio  of  the  Spanish  Dominican 
I^Ialvenda.     Born  only  about  six  years  after  Cox  had  so 
designated  the  wearer   of   the   tiara,  his   results    are,  of 
course,  far  different  from  those  of  the  various  confessors 
and  martyrs  that  his  own  Roman  Church  had  disowned 
as  heretics,  and  his  own  Dominican  order  had  racked,  im- 
mured, and  burned  as  heretical  blasphemers.     The  ques- 
tion is  one  long  litigated,  but  it  cannot  be  banished  if  the 
great  Head  of  the  church  is  to  be  regarded  as  not  a  mere 
alarmist  when   warning   against  the    false   Clirists   that 
should  come  in  his  own  name  and  deceive  many.     And 
if  to  his  servant  in  Patmos  he  gave  images  so  startling  of 
the  spiritual  powers  that  sliould  beset  his  people,  we  may 
well  believe  that  those  of  his  followers  best  serve  him  on 
earth  and  those  most  surely  win  his  welcome  in  heaven 
who  take  early  and  reverent  heed  to  these  oracles  of  his 
framing,  nor  walk  into  snares  against  which  he  has  fore- 
armed them. 

It  is  part  of  the  Master's  blessed  provision  for  the  spir- 
itual needs  of  his  disciplcship,  down  to  the  day  of  his 
own   return   in  tlic   glistening  cloud   and   on  the  white 
II 


122  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

throne,  that  he  has,  in  the  brief  tome  of  his  New  Testa- 
ment, a  book  that  the  schoolboy's  wallet,  and  the  soldier's 
knapsack,  and  the  sailor's  chest  may  so  easily  stow — that 
in  these  pages,  to  which  the  dying  turn  for  glimpses  of 
the  world  beyond  the  grave  as  it  yawns  so  near,  and  in 
which  the  bereaved  catch,  amid  their  falling  tears,  hope 
for  the  vanished  kindred  who  have  left  home  desolate — he, 
the  Lord  of  tlie  centuries,  should  have  placed  so  conspic- 
uously and  thundered  so  emphatically  along  the  whole 
onrolling  course  of  those  centuries  his  warning — sad 
boding  and  stern — that  we  receive  not  every  claim  to 
spiritual  dominion,  even  though  the  world,  the  whole 
world,  for  the  time,  go  wandering  after  it,  and  though  the 
Man  of  Sin  throne  himself  for  a  time  in  the  very  temple 
of  God,  giving  himself  out  as  God.  As  Manning,  the  com- 
panion of  John  Henry  Newman  in  departure  from  the 
British  Establishment,  and,  though  not  the  peer  of  New- 
man in  learning,  logic,  or  intellectual  power,  far,  probably, 
his  superior  in  popularity,  elegance  of  style,  and  sway  of 
hearts  as  a  preacher, — as,  we  say,  Manning  has  put  it 
tersely  and  plainly  before  the  English-speaking  Christians 
of  the  round  world,  the  question  becomes  a  very  signifi- 
cant and  urgent  one :  the  King  of  heaven  or  the  master- 
piece of  Tophet ;  the  Christ  the  Truth,  or  the  Antichrist 
the  huge  Untruth. 

In  an  old  German  pamphlet,  issued  by  Roman  Catholic 
writers  of  the  Continent,  and  intended  to  warn  against 
prevalent  heresies,  whilst  Luther  was  comparatively  ob- 
scure— for  he  is  not  named  in  it;  and  the  strength  of  the 
denunciation  in  which  is  against  tlie  Waldensians  and 


UXDER  THE   BAN   OP   ANTICHRIST.  123 

the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  and  the  followers  of  the  English 
Wycliflc,  and  the  Bohemian  IIuss — it  is  said  of  these  Poor 
Men  of  Lyons,  that  they  ^^  regard  the  Ban  as  their  own  ever- 
lasting benediction.^^*  By  the  word  Ban — fallen  practically, 
with  the  shrunken  powers  of  the  hierarchy,  into  disuse — 
was  meant  in  ancient  times  the  power  publicly  and  sol- 
emnly to  curse.  It  delivered  over  the  individual  heretic 
to  excommunication,  banishment,  prison,  or  death;  and 
the  land  it  laid  under  an  interdict,  abolishing  in  it,  for  the 
time,  all  holy  ofliccs,  and  smiting  service  and  worshippers 
as  with  a  moral  paralysis,  and — if  the  Saxon  phrase  be 
permitted  us — as  with  a  spiritual  lockjaw,  that  hindered 
further  movement,  and,  if  left  unrelieved,  Avould  bring 
on  utter  death. 

The  Waldensians  this  Roman  Catholic  pamphlet  rej^re- 
sents  as  claiming  that  they  had  been  in  the  world  since 
the  days  of  the  first  Pope  Sylvester  and  the  Emperor 
Constantine,  when  the  fatal  bount}'  and  patronage  of  this 
emperor  had  corrupted  and  secularized  the  church,  as 
Waldensians  held.  That  is,  far  back  as  the  closing  of  the 
third  and  opening  of  the  fourth  Christian  ccntur}^,  the 
Waldensians  dated  the  fatal  wrench  and  blight.  Denying 
their  full  antiquity,  but  allowing  that  they,  the  Walden- 
sians, had  been  in  the  world  more  than  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  they,  the  Roman  Catholics,  charge  on  tlicse 
Waldensians  the  heretical  statement,  that  true  priestly 
orders  had  gone  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  far 
back  as  the  days  wlien  Constantine  endowed  licr,  and 
when  Sylvester  received  the  imperial  recognition  as  pri- 
*  Arlikcl  um  Ursprunrj  (1524). 


124:  LECTURES    ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

mate  over  the  church.  Prayers  for  the  dead,  purgatory, 
prayers  to  the  saints,  pilgrimages,  jubilees,  burial  in  con- 
secrated ground,  and  the  use  of  oaths,  they  charge  the 
Waldensians  Avith  denying.  To  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons, 
they  impute  the  assertion,  that  the  Roman  Church  is  the 
Harlot  of  Babylon;  that  all  the  new  laws  made  for  the 
church,  since  Christ's  ascension  to  heaven,  are  unauthor- 
ized and  valueless;  that  true  baptism  comes  only  after 
belief,  personally;  and  that  Infant  Baptism  is  to  be  re- 
jected. To  Wycliffe,  the  pamphlet  imputes  the  sentiment, 
that  to  ban  a  man,  a  bishop  must  know  that  God  has  first 
banned  him ;  and  that,  banning  another  without  such 
personal  knowledge,  the  prelate  makes  himself  a  heretic ; 
that  the  men  who,  in  dread  of  man's  ban,  turn  from  hear- 
ing God's  word  preached,  are  themselves  banned,  and  at 
the  day  of  judgment  will  be  doomed  as  traitors  against 
God ;  that  bans  of  the  pope  and  his  bishops  are  not  to  be 
heeded,  for  they  are  but  judgments  of  Antichrist.  The 
pamphlet  closes  with  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance (a.  d.  1414)  condemning  such  heresies,  and  sending 
Huss  and  Jerome  to  the  fire. 

The  yellow  quarto  tract  of  some  eight  leaves,  in  its  rude 
black  type,  is  thus  like  some  dark  thunder-cloud  swollen 
with  portents  of  doom.  But,  itself  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years  old,  and  allowing  to  the  Waldensians  in  that 
age  a  history  actually  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  back, 
or  seven  centuries  from  our  times,  it  cites,  though  it  dis- 
putes, the  Waldensian  statement,  that  they  came  from  the 
days  of  Sylvester,  or  a  time  when  Constantine,  by  enrich- 
ing, had,  as  Dante  also  complained,  secularized  the  church. 


UNDER   THE   BAN    OF   ANTICHRIST.  125 

The  Catholic  accusers  allowed  them  an  antiquity  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years ;  the  Waldensians  claimed  a  real 
antiquity  of  twelve  centuries,  or  nearly  nine  centuries 
more  than  their  persecutors  granted  them. 

Now,  Neander,  Hebrew  in  blood,  but  Christian  eminently 
in  spirit,  of  vast  erudition  and  greatest  candor,  says  *  that 
it  is  not  without  some  foundation  of  truth  that  this  claim 
of  the  Waldensians  goes  back  far  as  the  times  of  Sylves- 
ter and  Constantine's  gift.  Of  one  of  the  old  Waldensian 
manuscripts,  claiming  to  be  of  the  year  A.  d.  1120,  and 
having  as  its  theme  Antichrist,  Neander  says  that  it 
belongs  certainly  to  the  twelfth  century.f  Rainerius, 
once  himself  a  member  of  the  Catharist  or  heretical  com- 
munity, afterward  a  persecutor,  traces  them  back  to  Syl- 
vester's times,  and  to  the  apostles  even.J  These  Walden- 
sians held  Antichrist,  in  his  earl}--  stages  and  ages,  to  have 
been  "  mute.''  It  was  their  striking  phrase  for  his  slow 
development,  and  the  growing  boldness  of  his  utterances, 
and  the  wide  sweep  of  his  later  assumptions.  In  the 
imagery  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  evil  influence  had  been 
"letted" — cribbed  and  hemmed  in — by  adverse  powers 
that  it  was  to  survive,  and  finally  to  eliminate  and  to 
supersede.  As  Hobbcs  phrased  it,  the  ghost  of  the  pon- 
tificate sate  crowned  on  the  tomb  of  the  empire. 

A  man  of  earlier  times  than  those  of  Neander,  the 
saintly  Leighton,  holds  of  the  Waldensian  church  this 
language :§  "The  devil,  crafty  as  he  is,  makes  use,  again 
and  again,  of  his  old  inventions,  and  makes  them  serve 

*  Bohn's  cd.,  Loiulun,  viii.,  351,  3j2.        f  Ibid.,  352.        J  lb.,  352,  n. 

I  Works,  Peai-sou's  ed.,  London,  1828,  vol.  i.,  p.  285. 
11  « 


126  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

in  several  ages ;  for  so  Avere  the  Waldenses  accused  of 
inhuman  banqueting  .  .  .  and  divers  things  not  once  to  be 
named  among  Christians,  much  less  to  be  practiced  by 
them."  Just,  in  other  words,  as  old  Paganism  libelled 
the  first  Christians  as  grossly  wicked,  so  the  persecutors 
of  later  believers  maligned,  before  they  martyred,  many 
of  their  victims.  Bossuet,  however,  allows  the  moral  exal- 
tation of  the  Waldenses,  though  he  will  not  admit  the  like 
to  be  true  of  the  Albigenses. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  our  denominational  views  were 
universal  among  the  Waldenses.  There  were — as  read- 
ers of  ecclesiastical  history,  entirely  independent,  and  far 
removed  in  position  from  each  other  as  are  our  own 
Robert  Hall  and  Schleiermacher  of  Germany,  have  agreed 
in  judging — some  of  the  Waldensian  Christians  Avho 
upheld,  and  others  who  rejected  Infant  Baptism.  So  there 
were  also,  among  the  Lollards,  or  early  English  followers 
of  Wycliffe,  some  who  followed  out  the  results  of  Wy- 
cliffe's  principles,  in  the  study  of  the  vernacular  Scrip- 
tures, to  the  conclusion  that  baptism  Avent  with  faith,  and 
that  infants,  not  capable  of  exercising  the  one,  should 
not  receive  the  otlier.  Rastell,  one  of  the  judges  of  Eng- 
land in  the  days  of  Queen  Mary,  has  preserved  in  his 
Entrees  legal  documents  coming  down,  some  of  them, 
from  his  grandlathcr,  Sir  John  More,  a  justice  of  the 
King's  Bench,  and  father  of  the  illustrious  chancellor,  Sir 
Thomas  More.  In  this  volume,  Rastell  has  preserved  a 
Latin  writ,  sending  over  to  the  bishop  for  judgment,  ac- 
cording to  the  canon  laAV,  three  several  groups  of  Lol- 
lards, who  all  rejected  Infant  Baptism.     The  date  he  has 


UNDER   THE    BAN   OF    ANTICIIllIST.  127 

not  given ;  it  might  have  been  the  time  when  his  grnnd- 
father  served  on  the  bench,  or  when  lie,  the  grandson, 
accepted  a  simihir  post  in  the  days  of  Queen  Mary,  on 
whose  death  the  doughty  Romanist  sought  refuge  on  the 
Continent,  dying  at  Louvain.  From  the  designation  of 
Lollard  given  to  the  errorists,  the  earlier  date  of  the  time 
of  Ilastell's  grandfather,  the  elder  More,  would  seem  the 
more  probable.  Gross  immoralities  are  also  imputed  to 
two  groups  of  the  three.  But  we  know  how  carelessly, 
cruelly,  and  falsely  both  pagan  and  papal  Rome  showered 
such  accusations  against  their  innocent  viclims.  And  a 
reader  of  ecclesiastical  history  soon  finds  that  crude  but 
justly -founded  criticisms  of  the  heretic  against  the  mar- 
riage services  and  practices  of  the  dominant  church 
were,  by  the  priesthood  whose  services  and  fees  were  so 
impeached,  wrested  most  perversely  to  bear  a  meaning 
Avhich  the  righteous  dissident  never  held.  But  one,  who 
had  personally  known  Wycliffe  and  sympathized  with 
early  Lollardism  in  England,  but  afterward  left  that  com- 
munion, gave  as  the  reason,  that  among  other  errors  the 
Lollard  followers  of  the  great  Reformer  at  Lutterworth  re- 
jected the  baptism  of  infonts. 

In  the  vast  hecatombs  that  sealed  their  faith  with  their 
blood,  it  is  now  impossible  to  trace  out  the  exact  ecclesi- 
astical tenets,  and  church  relations,  of  the  sufferers  who 
gave  home,  freedom,  property,  and  life,  to  the  cause  of  the 
IMaster.  But,  amid  the  sufferers  under  Alva,  when  the 
Netherlands  were  so  drenched  with  human  gore,  multi- 
tudes Avere  of  our  faith  ;  and  they  had  their  share,  in  that 
land,  in  early  versions  of  the  Scriptures  for  the  general 


128  LECTURES   ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

use  of  the  faithful.  The  followers  of  Henr}'-  do  Bruis,  at 
an  earlier  day  in  tlie  history  of  France,  were  with  us,  on 
this  topic  of  Christian  faith  and  duty.  Indeed,  many  of 
the  Holland  Mennonites  hold  the  Waldensians  to  liavc 
heen  the  first  propagandists,  on  Holland  soil,  of  these 
views,  in  their  flight  northward  from  persecution  in 
France  and  Italy.  It  has  been  said  by  one  of  the  early 
Mennonite  writers,  that  the  oldest  families  of  the  Menno- 
nites, in  certain  towns  of  'Holland,  had  names  of  Walden- 
sian  origin,  and  claimed  to  be  the  progeny  of  such  exiled 
forefathers.  Venema,  himself  a  Pedobaptist,  living  in 
Holland,  a  theologian  and  scholar  of  such  eminence  that 
Adam  Clarke,  the  British  Methodist,  said  of  his,  Venema's, 
Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  that  it  was  a  Goliali's  SAvord 
as  described  by  David,  "There  was  none  like  it:" — this 
eminent  scholar,  beyond  the  reach  of  denominational 
bias,  and  speaking  of  the  ancient  history  of  his  own 
country,  ascribes  to  the  Baptists  of  Holland  an  origin 
earlier  than  the  time  of  the  Miinster  orgies,  where  too 
many  would  fain  place  their  cradle.  Mosheim,  a  Pedo- 
baptist and  a  German,  places  our  origin  far  back.  Ypeij 
and  Dermout,  members  of  the  Established  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Holland,  in  their  history  of  that,  their  own 
national  church,  put  our  origin  as  a  people  be3'ond  the 
age  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

What  was  there,  in  the  position  and  traits  of  our 
churches,  to  bring  upon  tliem  the  ban,  in  its  heavy  and 
burning  severity  ? 

They  insisted  mucli  upon  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  as  the 
ureat  Conservator  and  Guardian  of  the  life  of  the  Christian 


UNDER   THE    BAN    OF    ANTICHRIST. 


129 


church.     Now,  far  hack  as  the  days  of  Montanism,  this 
was   offensive   to   the   Christian   churclies,  who    hccame. 
under  power  and  wealth   and   fashion,  secuhirized  and 
corrupted.     The  Comte  de  Champagny— who  has  written, 
though    an   Ultramontane    Catholic,   so    eloquently    and 
crudLly,  on  the  early  history  of  Christianity,  and  the 
collision  of  it  with  Judaism  on  the  one  side  and  Pagan- 
ism on  the  other  side-has  said  of  the  jSIontanists,  that  it 
was  hard  to  find  doctrinal  error  in  their  views ;  that  they 
were  rather  like  Jansenists  or  ISIethodists,  in  their  high 
views  of  religious  emotion  and  experience.     They  were 
accused  of   claiming    inspiration,  when   they  intended, 
probably,  only,  like  the  early  followers  of  Cameron  among 
the  Covenanters,  or  of  Wesley  among  the  English  Meth- 
odists, the  true  experience  of  God's  work  in  the  individual 
c;oul     Out  of  Montanism  came  Tertullian,  early  protesting 
ac^ainst  the  precipitating  of  Infant  Baptism.     So  the  Don- 
atists  made,  in  after  times,  a  like  testimony  agamst  world- 
liness;   and   Bishop  Latimer,  himself  in  later  years  a 
martyr,  speaking  of  some  Anabaptist  martyrs  from  Hol- 
land'who  went  to  the  stake  in  England  with  heroic  cheer 
and  joy  was  struck  with  a  parallel  of  which  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  discovered  all  the  force;   and  makes  the 
remark,  that  these  glad  sufferers  at  the  stake  were  but 
like  those  old  heretics,  the  Donatists  of  early  ages.    The 
Paulicians,  a  later  body,  were  eminent  especially  for  their 
love  of  Paul's  Epistles,  which  they  so  admired,  that  tlieir 
teachers,  many  of  them,  changed  their  original  names  for 
those  of  some  of  Paul's  helpers  and  converts.     For  centu- 
ries defamed  and  pursued,  they  held  their  course,  testify- 


l30  LECTURES   ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ing  and  AVitnessing.  Hase,  the  modern  church  historian, 
himself  a  nationalist,  speaks  of  them,  as  continuing  under 
various  names  down  quite  near  to  our  own  age,  in  the 
neighhorhood  of  Mount  Haemus,  or  the  Balkan  Moun- 
tains in  European  Turkey,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Philip- 
popolis,  tlie  very  town  to  which  the  recent  atrocities  of 
Turks,  in  Bulgaria,  have  drawn  such  general  and  such 
indignant  sympathy. 

Now,  in  the  imagery  of  the  Apocalypse,  God  described 
his  own  people  as  hidden  in  the  wilderness.  What  the 
Omniscient  conceals,  it  will  be  found  generally  rather  dif- 
ficult for  short-sighted  science,  or  mankind  at  large,  to 
explain  and  to  make  clear.  To  hide  from  our  haughtiness 
occasions  of  boasting  and  self-reliance,  to  take  the  wise  in 
their  own  craftiness,  he  has  more  than  once  allowed  the 
powers  of  earth  to  sweep  the  stage,  as  for  their  own  sole 
and  uncontested  occupancy,  that,  doing  as  it  might  be 
their  best,  or  doing  as  it  might  be  their  worst,  he  should, 
in  the  hour  when  wrong  seemed  dominant  and  error 
vaunted  itself  incontrovertible,  flash  in  upon  the  maskers 
and  the  revellers,  from  some  unexpected  nook,  with  the 
torch  of  Scripture,  tlie  enkindled  glare  of  an  awakened 
conscience,  and  the  trumpet  blare  of  a  long-forgotten 
prophecy.  The  world,  "by  wisdom,  knew  not  God." 
The  last  results  of  a  godless  science  were  to  evaporate 
Revelation,  and  to  precipitate  the  dead,  flavorless  residue 
of  an  infinite  and  an  irremediable  despair.  The  world, 
in  the  guise  of  the  Church,  has,  by  power,  extruded  Scrip- 
ture and  banned  Reform,  and,  with  martyr-fires  streaming 
their  smoke  heavenward,  asked,  Who  now  shall  confront 


UNDER   TUE    BAN    OF   ANTICHRIST.  131 

the  Sovereign,  and  impeach  the  Infallible; — unlock  the 
buried  oracles,  and  dare  the  leaping  interdict  that  conies 
down  from  Christ's  Vicegerent?  God  had  but  to  breathe 
forth  his  Spirit,  to  touch  the  multiform  and  noiseless  keys 
of  liis  own  omnipresent  providence,  and  what  was  the 
result?  The  Bible  leaped  from  the  dusty  shelf  and  the 
dead  tongues,  into  homes  and  marts,  into  dialects  that 
never  before  had  even  been  written.  As  from  the  ashes  of 
the  stake,  the  enfranchised  faith  blew  itself,  an  invisible, 
irresistible  influence,  across  continents  and  oceans;  the 
Bible  of  1877  has  a  hold  on  the  ears  and  a  seal  on  the  lips 
of  the  nations,  East  and  West,  North  and  South,  such  as 
no  book  ever  before  attained.  If  the  Spirit  go  with  it, 
who  shall  say,  that  we  have  begun  yet  to  see  the  outskirts 
of  the  glorious  effects  which  it  is  predestined  ultimately 
to  achieve? 

Our  churches  have  held  that  the  Spirit,  blowing  where 
it  listeth,  goes  not  in  the  line  of  a  hereditary  order,  or 
upon  the  branches  of  a  family  pedigree ;  that  the  Para- 
clete may  call  its  peasant  and  artisan  messengers  ajjart 
from  the  ranks  of  the  lettered  and  refined.  By  so  doing, 
the}''  incurred  in  Britain,  in  Holland  and  Bohemia,  in 
Southern  France,  the  ban,  fierce  and  summary.  But  the 
providence  of  God  and  the  history  of  the  churches  have 
vindicated  the  righteousness  of  the  claim.  He  who,  on 
Pentecost,  anointed  the  fishermen  apostles,  and  sent  a 
tent-maker  to  teach  the  men  of  the  Areopagus  wisdom, 
and  the  Ciesars  of  Rome  duty  and  responsibility,  lias  not 
been  at  a  loss  for  Bunyans  and  Careys  in  days  nearer  our 
own.     And   they,   who   undertake   to   ban,   athwart   the 


132  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

descending  sheets  of  the  flaming  influences  of  tliis  Divine 
Paraclete,  may  find  that,  like  the  benediction  pronounced 
on  the  invincible  Armada  of  Spain,  and  the  acclaim  given 
the  French  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  and  the 
shelter  cast  over  the  atrocities  of  Savoy  in  the  valleys  of 
Piedmont,  and  the  applause  lavished  on  the  faithless 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  sympathy  as- 
sured the  late  Napoleon  raid  on  Germany,  and  the  pat- 
ronage vouchsafed  to  the  assumption  of  the  hapless  Maxi- 
milian as  against  Mexico, — there  was  something  to  have 
been  learned,  that  has  been  rather  strangely  overlooked, 
in  what  many  centuries  ago  had  been  said  by  a  very  wise 
prophet  of  old :  "  He  hath  blessed,  and  I  cannot  reverse 
it."  Balaam,  from  the  hills  of  Moab,  was  in  the  right. 
God's  providence,  and  the  conscience  of  the  race,  and  the 
verdict  of  history,  and  the  streaming  might  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  are  not,  when  they  bless,  easily  reversed,  even  by 
the  wearer  of  infallibility,  assuming  to  speak  in  the  name 
and  guise  of  the  vicegerent  of  Christ. 

Nay,  in  the  wise  providence  of  God,  the  very  tighten- 
ings  of  old  bonds,  that  were  once  worn  more  loosely,  by 
strain  put  on  the  authority  of  the  pontifical  church,  in 
the  new  denunciations  of  the  Syllabus;  the  honor  and 
the  influence  lavished  on  orders  that  have  heretofore 
wielded  power  on  so  many  broad  theatres,  and  proved  so 
disastrously  in  the  past  the  mingled  temerity  and  brittle- 
ness  of  their  policy,  are  all  of  thcni,  to  the  thoughtful 
Protestant,  among  the  grand  auguries  of  hope.  The 
Jesuit  order  never,  with  all  its  literary  culture  and  men- 
tal acuteness,  accomplished  a  plausible  and  enduring  re- 


UNDER  THE   BAN   OF   ANTICIIllIST.  133 

sponse,  to  the  terrible  impeachment  of  its  morals  and  its 
casuistry  by  a  Pascal  and  an  Arnauld  and  their  immortal 
allies  in  the  great  Port  Royal  movement.  They  aided,  as 
an  order,  in  the  mission  fields  of  Canada  and  "Western 
America, 'of  Brazil  and  China,  and  of  Japan,  with  im- 
mense expenditures  of  talents  and  treasure;  and  yet  with 
what  abiding  result  from  the  efforts  of  a  Xavier  and  an 
Anchieta,  a  Jogues  and  a  Reschi?  The  poetic  labors  of 
the  last  remain,  and  his  catechism  ;  but  what  a  haze  rests 
on  the  great  success  attributed  to  the  greatest  of  their 
missionary  champions,  Francis  Xavier  himself.  As  to 
their  mission  to  the  courts  of  princes,  and  to  the  cabinets 
of  statesmen,  how  i:»owerfully  did  their  hands  move  the 
secret  springs  of  strategy  and  statecraft  on  the  European 
field.  And  what  was  the  result  of  the  labors  that  rev- 
olutionized Poland,  that  dragooned  Pluguenotism  out  of 
France,  and  that  educated  in  its  colleges  there  a  D'Alem- 
bert,  and  a  Diderot,  and  a  Voltaire  ? 

Restored,  they  claim  to  dictate  the  theology  and  the 
policy  of  the  present  occupant  of  the  pontifical  chair. 
Is  there  aught  in  the  annals  of  the  ages  past;  is  there 
aught  in  the  present  aspect  of  the  passing  age,  now  around 
us,  to  make  their  hold  on  the  helm  of  the  ship  other 
than  one  full  of  dread  for  the  sober  and  the  thoughtful 
of  their  co-religionists,  and  of  cause  of  hope  and  sanguine 
trust  on  the  part  of  those  who  cherish  the  memor}^  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation  and  its  martyrs?  That  jiolic}', 
which,  according  to  the  principles  of  Loyola,  gathers  all 
wills  and  all  consciences  as  into  the  single  brain  and  the 
single  conscience  of  the  general  of  the  Order,  is  indeed 

12 


134  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTOEY. 

fearful  in  its  energetic  concentration  and  in  its  prompti- 
tude and  in  its  persistenc3\  But  has  not  God  made  men, 
individually,  each  with  a  conscience  of  his  own,  and  each 
to  render  an  account  for  himself? 

And  when  this  selfhood  and  this  individualism  is  sur- 
rendered to  the  control,  unquestioned  and  uncontrolled, 
of  another,  a  mortal — not  beyond  the  reach  of  self-will 
and  shortsightedness  and  audacity  and  delusion — has  the 
reader  of  the  Bible,  and  the  believer  in  the  sovereignty  of 
God  alone  and  God  for  evermore,  any  other  intcriDretation 
than  that  a  policy,  thus  shaped  on  the  principle  of  giving 
up  to  a  fellow-mortal  the  prerogatives  due  only  to  a  God, 
must  have  its  result  in  wide  but  transient  power,  yet  fol- 
lowed by  ultimate  and  inevitable  and  irreparable  Avrecks  ? 

They  did  not  make  the  Gunpowder  Plot  a  success;  they 
did  not  make  the  Restoration  of  Romanism  in  England 
under  James  II.  a  success ;  they  did  not  make  the  over- 
throw of  Protestantism,  and  the  cancelment  of  the 
pledges  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  as  given  to  his  old  fellow- 
Protestants,  to  a  Sully  and  a  Mornay  du  Plessis  and  a 
None  of  the  Iron  Hand,  a  success.  And  whilst  we  wish 
no  man  evil  for  his  soul,  we  do  rejoice,  unfeignedly,  that 
to  an  influence,  so  plausible,  so  grasping,  and  so  bound  to 
failure,  is  now  entrusted  the  sway  of  the  pontifical  cabi- 
net, and  the  keeping  of  the  conscience  of  the  spiritual 
monarch,  who  has  arrogated  infallibility,  and  hopes  to 
make  the  claim,  in  the  hands  of  his  successors,  if  not  of 
himself,  a  grand  reality. 

Our  True  Lord,  the  Only  and  Irreplacable  Ruler,  has 
not  been  wout  to  trust  the  reins  of  ultimate  sovereignty  to 


UNDER  THE   BAN   OF   ANTICHRIST.  135 

Phacthons,  bound  to  luirl  the  chariots  which  they  drive 
over  the  precipice.  The  enterprises  which  we  see,  under 
the  names  of  Infallibility  and  Divinity,  given  over  to  such 
conduct,  we  may  very  calmly  and  confidently  believe  are 
not,  in  car-builder  or  driver  or  banner,  schemes  that  the 
Christ  has  warranted.  We  will  not,  far  as  in  us  lies,  sur- 
render soul,  church,  or  people  to  such  guidance.  The  In- 
vincible Armada  shall  not  be  aided  to  repeat  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  experiment  of  the  sixteenth,  and  to 
make  a  second  disastrous  demonstration  of  its  invincibil- 
ity by  our  co-operation  on  our  Western  shores,  although 
the  Old  Unerring  Voice  launches  out  its  solemn  benedic- 
tion on  all  helpers,  and  thunders  forth  its  awful  ban  on 
all  doubters  and  opposers. 

The  Crusades  and  the  Inquisition ;  the  auto-da-fe ;  "  the 
Index  of  Prohibited  Books ;"  the  graves  of  so  many  myr- 
iads of  martyrs ;  the  libraries  of  so  many  literatures ;  tlie 
presses  of  so  many  languages, — all  proclaim,  as  with  one 
sad  utterance,  the  old  lament  of  Balaam :  We  could  not 
reverse  what  God  has  blessed. 

Has  God  no  blessing  for  the  devout  Catholic?  Far  be 
it  from  us  to  cherish  such  a  thought.  An  A  Kempis  and 
a  Fenelon,  a  Borroraeo,  a  De  Sacy,  a  Blaise  Pascal,  and  an 
Angelique  Arnauld  and  her  brothers,  are  memories  dear 
to  Christians  of  other  confessions.  Tregelles,  because  of 
such  piety  in  individual  Catholics,  was  unwilling  to  ad- 
mit the  interpretation  of  the  prophecies  of  the  Scriptures 
respecting  Antichrist  and  the  Man  of  Sin  as  being  in- 
tended for  the  papal  churcli.  But  when  God  says  respect- 
ing the  mystical  New  Testament  Babylon,  Come  out  of 


136  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

lier,  my  people,  it  is  implied  that  her  awful  errors  and 
her  fearful  end  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  presence  of 
true  piety  in  some  individuals  of  her  fellowship.  The  Bab- 
ylon of  the  Old  Testament  was  denounced  by  God's  seers 
and  foredoomed  to  an  awful  overthrow.  Yet  some  have 
supposed  that  Nebuchadnezzar,  her  Chaldean  king,  was  a 
true  penitent,  and  that  Cyrus,  her  Persian  conqueror,  was 
not  ignorant  of  the  true  God.  Of  this  we  know  nothing, 
and  would  judge  dubiously.  But  supposing  the  eternal 
escape  of  either  of  these  Babylonish  sovereigns,  and  re- 
membering God's  care  of  the  thousands  in  heathen  Nin- 
eveh that  knew  not  the  right  hand  from  the  left,  did  these 
except,  lessen,  or  parry  the  swoop  of  the  tremendous  ban 
that  Heaven  launched  as  against  both  pagan  capitals  ? 

When  God  told  Jeremiah  to  show  his  faith  in  the  future 
and  pledged  return  of  Israel  from  the  Babylonian  captiv- 
ity, he  bade  the  prophet  to  bury  the  evidences  of  the  field 
which  he  had  purchased,  the  title-deeds  of  his  new  prop- 
erty in  Anathoth,  in  the  ground.  After  many  days  the 
earth,  his  registry-office,  was  to  be  disturbed,  and  to  give 
up  its  custody  of  these  records  of  divine  veracity  and  of 
the  prophet's  persistent  patriotic  confidence.  So  God  has 
placed  on  the  martyrs  that  papal  Rome  has  made,  and  on 
the  blessed  memories  which,  far  as  she  could,  she  defamed 
and  blackened,  the  assurance  of  his  coming  vengeance.  As 
Milton  and  as  Vane  saw  in  their  day,  there  is  to  be  a  resur- 
rection of  the  reputation  of  God's  people,  as  there  is,  in  the 
last  day,  to  be  a  resurrection  of  their  mouldered  dust.  It 
has  been  true  in  our  own  times  of  a  Cromwell.  Hume, 
Bcoffingly  and  derisively,  told  how  strange  a  compilation 


UNDER  THE   BAN   OF   ANTICHRIST.  137 

would  be  that  of  the  letters  and  .speeches  of  the  Protector; 
Carlyle,  not  a  bigoted  religionist,  whatever  else  may  be 
his  claims,  has  made  such  a  gathering  of  the  Protector's 
correspondence  and  oratory ;  and  its  effect,  even  in  the 
judgment  of  enemies,  is  to  clear  and  exalt  the  -wisdom 
and  the  energy  and  the  religious  earnestness  of  the  great 
Protector,  England's  greatest  ruler. 

God  suffered  the  evidence  against  Koman  Paganism,  in 
the  ruins  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  to  slumber  for 
many  centuries.  He  exhumed  them,  and  they  justify  the 
Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Romans  in  its  dread  impeachment 
of  the  manners  of  classic  antiquity.  He  buried  Egypt 
and  Chaldea  and  Assyria,  and  the  very  keys  of  the  strange 
inscriptions  were  lost.  These  have  been  disinterred.  The 
hieroglyphic  and  arrow-headed  characters  have  been  read, 
after  the  lapse  of  so  many  centuries ;  and,  as  out  of  Jere- 
miah's earthen  urn  emerged  the  evidence  of  the  prophet's 
ownership,  so  has  it  been  that  out  of  these  graves  of  the 
ancient  and  the  mysterious  and  the  forgotten  he  has  illus- 
trated more  luminously  the  truth  of  his  nature  and  the 
certainty  of  his  prophecies.  Thus  in  the  past,  so  shall  it 
ever  be  in  the  long  dim  future.  Our  God  is  in  one  mind, 
and  who  can  turn  him? 
12  » 


VI. 

ANABAPTISTS 

OF   THE 

COI^TmEKT  AND   ENGLAND. 


ANABxVPTlSTS 

OF   THE 

COI^TIl^ENT  AND  ENGLAND. 


In  every  great  movement  that  awakens  keen  feeling 
over  a  wide  region,  and  calls  into  collision  opposing  in- 
terests and  rival  classes  in  a  nation,  it  is  not  cause  of  sur- 
prise, that  good  men  should  find  themselves  jostled  by 
men  of  exceeding  wickedness.  Napoleon  was  wont  to 
speak  of  himself  as  opening  a  career  to  all  the  talents. 
Intellect  and  merit  found  spread  clear  before  them  a  free 
pathway.  But  all  the  talents  might  be  elbowed  in  the 
race,  and  find  themselves  distanced  at  the  goal,  by  "all  the 
vices;"  and  the  reptile  has  wriggled  to  heights  wliere  the 
lion  could  scarcely  find  foothold,  or  the  eagle  even  a  place 
to  perch. 

A  Bible  having  been  opened  before  the  people,  that  each 
in  his  OAvn  tongue  might  read  ;  tlie  summons  having  gone 
forth,  that  each  man  for  himself  seek  God's  Spirit,  and  go, 
for  pardon  and  renewal,  beyond  ordinances  and  fanes, 
indulgences  and  jubilees,  direct  to  the  One  Mediator 
Christ;  the  truth  having  been  taught  that,  in  Christ's 
church,  disciphne  and  rule,  or,  as  it  was  called,  "the 
power  of  the  keys,"  belonged  to  all  the  membership,— 


111 


142  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

this  was  a  change  that  must  work  a  great  moral  revolu- 
tion. Our  Lord  himself  described  his  own  advent,  Prince 
of  peace  though  he  was,  as  bringing  a  sword  into  the 
world.  Portions  of  the  community,  before  mutually  re- 
pellent, became  soon  and  early  leagued  for  his  destruction. 
So  a  Paul  found  himself  confronted  by  false  apostles ;  and 
a  John,  the  last  surviving  apostle,  before  adding  the  final 
pages  to  the  New  Testament,  must  warn  the  flock,  amid 
the  baying  of  Persecution  all  around  them,  that  there 
were,  also,  within  the  nominal  fold,  many  Antichrists 
already  come  into  the  world.  So  it  has  been  the  fiict,  in 
political  as  well  as  in  religious  changes.  The  name  of 
Republic,  dear  to  us,  has  had  in  other  lands  its  sinister 
aspects  and  its  odious  memories.  Even  as  shaped  in  the 
imagination  of  a  thinker  like  Plato,  it  had  repulsive  fea- 
tures, from  which  men  who  loved  the  purity  and  order  of 
home  might  Avell  shrink  appalled.  And  in  times  nearer 
to  our  own  than  are  the  times  of  the  old  Greek  sage,  how 
much  Avas  there  in  the  Reign  of  Terror  of  the  first  great 
revolutionary  republic  of  France ;  and  in  the  Commu- 
nistic havoc  and  rapine  of  the  very  recent  outbreak  in 
tliat  great  nation, — we  repeat,  how  much  was  there  that 
would  give, — to  one  who  recalled  Marat  and  Robespierre, 
and  who  had  heard  Proudhon's  cry,  that  "  Property  was 
robbery,"  and  wlio  mused  on  democracy  thus  formulated, 
— only  feelings  of  distrust  and  strongest  aversion. 

The  Christian  church  saw  itself,  in  very  early  years, 
simulated  and  haunted  by  rival  and  corrupt  bodies ;  first 
the  Gnostic  and  then  the  Manichean,  that  had,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  persecuting  pagan  government,  tlic  same  names  and 


ANABAPTISTS   OF   THE    CONTINENT   AND    ENGLAND.  143 

ordinances,  and  used  partially  the  same  Scriptures  with 
the  genuine  churches,  yet  from  whom  the  true  believer 
turned  in  indignant  terror  and  holy  detestation.  See  the 
volumes,  learned  and  elaborate,  that  Matter,  the  French 
scholar,  launched,  and  that  appeared  posthumously  from 
the  British  thinker,  Dean  Mansel,  on  these  Gnostics ;  and 
the  bulky  tomes  compiled  by  the  old  Huguenot  refugee 
Beausobre  on  the  Manichees.  Were  these  books  on  the 
Gnostics  and  the  Manichees  to  be  courteously  laid  before 
an  ingenuous  student,  wishing  to  know  the  first  annals  of 
Christ's  people  on  the  earth ;  and  were  he  told,  that  in  these 
he  might  find  the  unhappy  and  soiled  cradle-wrappings 
of  an  infant  Christianit}^,  before  it  had  strength  to  become 
just  and  true  and  orderly  and  reverent, — he  might  well  be 
disturbed  at  the  covert  impeachment.  Yet  some  modern 
scholars,  in  stating  the  earlier  aspect  of  our  own  Baptist 
churches,  gravely  adduce  the  annals  of  the  madmen  of 
Miinster  and  of  the  Peasant  War  of  Germany,  as  if  we 
here  began;  whilst  they  kindly  allow,  that  we  have,  as  a 
people,  become  ameliorated  in  the  lapse  of  years,  having 
outgrown  and  renounced  these  excesses  of  a  riotous  and 
atrocious  childhood.  When  Dryden,  after  his  own  con- 
version to  the  Roman  Church  in  the  days  of  the  Romanist 
king,  James  II.,  dei)icted  the  Episcopal  Church  which  he 
had  left,  it  was  under  the  image  of  the  panther,  sleek, 
spotted,  and  treacherous;  and  the  Roman  communion 
which  he  had  joined,  it  was  as  the  harmless,  spotted 
hind ;  but  for  the  Anabaptist  he  reserved  the  symbol  of 
the  wild  boar  of  the  forest,  rough,  savage,  and  headlong. 
The  heraldry  of  printer,  painter,  and  poet  is  of  little  au- 


1-44  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

thority  in  settling  a  question  of  history.  But  tlie  old 
Waldensians  adopted  as  their  emblem  a  branched  candle- 
stick, with  the  motto,  "  Light  in  the  Darkness."  As  a 
guide  for  the  erring,  and  a  rebuke  for  the  lover  of  dark- 
ness, their  history  had  not  belied  their  symbol.  And  the 
old  Mennonite  Bible,  printed  and  circulated  in  the  ver- 
nacular language  of  Holland,  years  before  Alva  com- 
menced his  career  of  multitudinous  massacre  in  that 
country,  had  in  its  front  page,  in  either  of  the  two  Tes- 
taments, the  expressive  emblem  of  a  lily  fenced  witli  a 
framework  of  thorns,  and  its  motto  from  Solomon.  "A 
lily  among  thorns."  And,  in  either  case,  we  must  liold, 
that  flower  and  candle  well  fitted  the  truly  written  history 
of  our  elder  brothers  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont,  in  Bo- 
hemia and  Moravia,  and  in  Holland.  Their  mission  Avas 
benign  and  rich  in  benediction. 

We  alluded  to  Venema,  a  Pedobaptist  scholar  resident 
in  Holland,  and  writing  without  the  bias  of  attachment  to 
our  own  body.  He  has  said,*  "  The  immediate  origin 
of  the  Mennonites  is,  in  my  judgment,  more  justly  to  be 
traced  to  the  Waldensians  and  to  those  of  the  Anabaptists 
who  wished  a  renewal  of  the  innocence  and  purity  of  the 
primitive  church,  and  that  the  reformation  of  the  church 
should  be  carried  farther  than  Luther  and  Calvin  had 
arranged  it.  The  Waldensians,  apart  from  the  question 
as  to  the  origin  of  Christ's  human  nature,  in  the  chief 
articles  had,  in  almost  all  tliings,  like  views  with  the  Men- 
nonites, as  is  evident  from  their  history  as  (I)  stated  (it) 
in  the  twelfth  century.  ...  To  find  other  beginnings  as 
*T.  vii.  Hist.  Eccles.  Sa?cul.  xvi.  p.  443,  Liigd.  Bal.  1783. 


ANABAPTISTS   OF   THE   CONTINENT   AND   ENGLAND.  145 

the  source  of  Mennonitism  is  needless,  much  less  those 
invidious  ones,  placing  them  in  fellowship  with  the  men 
of  Miinster  and  other  like  fanatics.  From  these  they 
cleared  themselves,  both  in  old  time,  and  now  through  a 
long  space  of  years  have  so  vindicated  and  justified  them- 
selves, in  life  and  institutions,  that  longer  to  confound 
them  with  that  class  can  be  done  only  by  notable  injus- 
tice and  gravest  insult." 

The  word  "Anabaptist"  is  of  an  antiquity  far  preceding 
the  times  of  the  great  Reformation.    But  it  acquired  its 
portentous  and  repulsive  sound,  especially  as  applied  to 
men  whose  career  was  begun  after  Luther's,  and  mainly 
in  that  Germany  where  the  great  Reformer  wielded  his 
largest  and  most  enduring  influence.    God  had  his  true 
witnesses  before  he  raised  up  the  monk  of  Erfurt  and  the 
translator  and  teacher  of  Wittenberg.    When  Zwingle  of 
Switzerland  and  Luther  of  Germany  were  yet  children  in 
the  nursery  or  boys  in  the  school-room ;  in  1487— whilst 
Martin  the  miner's  son  was  but  a  child— the  Pontiff  had 
found  it  necessary  to  preach  a  crusade  against  the  Wal- 
densians,  encouraging  the  warriors  by  the  promise  of  a 
plenary  indulgence  given  them  for  taking  part  in  the 
butcheries.    In  1500,  at  the  opening  of  the  century,  when 
Martin  was  ignorant  as  yet  of  the  Bible  and  soon  to  enter 
an  Augustinian  monastery,  the  Moravian  brethren  pos- 
sessed two  hundred  places  of  worship.*    They  were  the 
inheritors  of  the  labors  of  Huss  and  Jerome,  of  British 
Lollards,  of  Wycliffe  and  Waldo,  and  laborers  yet  earlier 
than  these,  Avhose  memories  and  whose  reward  are  safe 
*  Riddle's  Eccles.  Chronology,  p.  320. 
13  K 


146  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

with  the  God  whom  they  meekly  and  faithfully  served, 
and  then  Avent  down  unrecorded  by  their  fellows  to  a  for- 
gotten or  a  dishonored  grave. 

Without  a  press ;  holding  their  assemblies,  over  a  large 
portion  of  their  field  and  through  a  long  tract  of  their 
history,  in  private  residences,  and  in  such  manner  as  to 
evade  the  eye  of  the  official  and  the  informer — they  relied, 
for  the  diff"usion  of  the  truth  as  they  had  received  it,  on 
personal  appeal;  on  the  intercourse  of  travel,  whereby 
much  of  the  commerce  of  the  age  was  transacted,  as  by 
visits  to  fairs  and  by  long  journeys  on  foot;  on  the  ex- 
change of  kindly  offices  with  the  stranger  and  the  needy. 
As  an  old  pagan  satirist  had,  by  an  expressive  graphic 
phrase,  described  the  early  Christians  as  "Christ  ped- 
dlers," so  were  these  men,  who,  like  the  itinerant  trader 
with  shop  in  the  pack  on  his  shoulders,  carried  about  their 
faith  and  the. testimony  of  their  one  Hope  and  Redeemer. 
Even  thus  the  Waldensians  are  picturesquely  described 
as  making  their  petty  industries,  the  humble  knapsack 
strapped  behind  them,  the  channels  through  which  they 
commended,  to  those  who  showed  any  temper  of  serious- 
ness, the  Bible,  of  which  many  of  these  humble  Christians 
had  committed  whole  books  to  memory;  and  whilst  show- 
ing other  ornaments,  they  praised  the  jewel  of  a  good 
hope  in  him;  and  thus  with  the  pathos  of  experience 
they  urged  on  the  sad,  the  bereaved,  and  the  thoughtful, 
great  truths  in  fraternal  simplicity  and  earnestness.  Scant 
as  in  that  age  literature  was  in  comparison  with  its  pres- 
ent redundance,  the  treatises  and  notices  of  the  age,  writ- 
ten often  by  their  enemies,  yet  attest  the  wide  currency 


ANABAPTISTS  OF  THE  CX)NTINENT  AND   ENGLAND.  147 

of  the  message  and  the  far- drawn  circuit  and  scope  of  the 
evangelical  itinerant. 

When  Luther  was,  in  God's  providence,  raised  up  to  do 
his  great  work,  he  found,  in  more  than  one  quarter  of  Eu- 
rope, those  who  had  preceded  him,  and  into  whose  labors 
and  testimony  he  in  some  sense  entered.  His  seed  sank 
into  soil  made  ready  by  their  tears  and  prayers  and 
martyr-blood.  In  1524,  Casper  Tauber,  in  Vienna,  end- 
ed at  the  stake  a  Christian  life.  He  was  one  whom 
Luther  ranks  with  others,  who,  as  he  says,  became 
"brilliant  lights  by  their  glorious  deaths,  wherein  they 
have  offered  to  God  a  sacrifice  of  sweet  savor."  There 
was  another  worthy  of  like  views  and  the  same  age,  Bal- 
thasar  Hubmeier.  He  had  been  a  pupil  of  Eck,  the  an- 
tagonist of  Luther,  and  was,  as  a  scholar  and  a  preacher, 
a  man  of  more  than  vulgar  endowments.  Under  the 
influence  of  Luther's  writings  he  became  an  adherent  of 
the  Reformation,  and  in  his  pastoral  charges  won,  under 
God's  blessing,  hearers  and  proselytes.  He  went  beyond 
Luther,  however,  to  the  rejection  of  Infant  Baptism ;  and 
so  wide  was  his  power,  that  Chemnitz,  whom  Bossuet 
ranks  as  among  the  greatest  of  Protestant  theologians,  in 
his,  Chemnitz's,  Examination  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
quotes  Hubmeier  as  the  greatest  of  the  Anabaptist  body. 
Martin  Duncan,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  of  Holland, 
who  in  Menno's  lifetime  impeached  his  views,  is  doubtful 
whether  he  should  regard  Hubmeier  or  Menno  as  founder 
of  the  heretical  body.  He  seems  to  have  been  somewhat 
like  Luther  in  his  aj^titude  for  sharp,  pithy  sayings,  that, 
like  barbed  arrows,  stayed  wliere  they  struck.     Speaking, 


148  LECTURES  ON  BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

for  instance,  of  the  impossibility  of  finding  the  papal  doc- 
trine of  Purgatory  in  any  part  of  the  Bible,  he  says  it  is 
like  the  grave  of  Moses,  which  can  never  and  nowhere  be 
found.  Driven  from  post  to  post,  he  was  such  an  object 
of  priestly  and  princely  dread,  that  the  Catholic  sovereign 
of  Austria  made  his  surrender  a  condition  of  peace,  with 
subjects  who  had  been  compelled  to  yield  to  the  emperor's 
superior  power.  Brought  like  Tauber  to  Vienna,  the  cap- 
ital of  Austria,  to  make  his  final  sacrifice,  he  was,  with  all 
his  holy  resolution,  and  cheerfulness  even,  a  sufferer,  being 
burned  to  death.  His  pious  wife,  who  heartened  her  hus- 
band to  constancy,  was  drowned.  Led  on  the  10th  of 
March,  1528,  four  years  after  Tauber,  to  the  place  of  burn- 
ing, he  kneeled,  and  lifting  his  eyes  heavenward  pra3'ed: 
"  0  my  gracious  God,  grant  me  patience  in  my  suffering. 
My  Father,  I  thank  thee,  that  to-day  thou  wilt  lift  me 
from  this  valley  of  sorrows.  With  joy  I  die,  that  I  may 
come  to  thee,  Lamb  of  God,  that  takest  away  the  sin  of 
the  Avorld.  My  God,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit."  Turning  to  the  bystanders,  he  begged,  that  if,  in 
word  or  deed,  he  had  offended  any,  he  might  for  God's 
sake  be  forgiven.  He  spoke  his  own  forgiveness  of  all 
who  might  have  ill-treated  him.  The  executioner  rubbed, 
when  preparing  him  for  the  death,  into  the  martyr's  long 
beard,  saltpetre  and  gunpowder.  Smilingly  cried  this  con- 
fessor, "  Salt  me  well,  now ;  salt  me  well."  Then,  again 
facing  the  multitude,  he  said,  "  Dear  brethren,  pray  for 
me,  that  God  give  me  patience  in  my  suffering:  in  my 
Christian  ftiith  I  Avill  die."  Amid  the  explosion  and  the 
flames  was  heard  the  cry,  "Jesus!"  and  the  smoke  and 


ANABAPTISTS  OF   THE   CONTINENT   AND   ENGLAND.  149 

the  fire  suffocated  Balthasar  Hubmcier.  Sprugel,  the 
Roman  Catholic  dean  of  the  University  of  Vienna,  at- 
tested, that,  to  the  end,  men  saw  only  joy  and  bright 
cheer  in  his  face.  Many  of  the  bystanders  melted  into 
tears.  His  faithful  wife,  who  had  before  her  conversion 
been  a  Roman  Catholic  nun,  in  bidding  farewell  to  her 
husband,  adjured  him  to  abide  faithful  to  death.  Three 
days  after  her  husband's  oblation,  on  the  13th  of  March, 
1528,  she  was  brought  to  the  bridge  over  the  Danube,  and, 
with  a  heavy  stone  bound  to  her  neck,  slie  was  hurled  into 
its  stream.  The  old  river  has  many  a  memory.  The  time 
is  coming  when  this  shall  be  among  its  illustrations. 

It  was  not  until  thirty-five  years  after,  or  the  lifetime  of 
a  full  generation,  in  1563,  that  there  left  a  Holland  press 
the  Mennonite  Bible  now  before  us,  bearing  on  its  front 
the  emblem  of  the  lily  amid  thorns. 

Was  not  Hubmeier's  brave  widow,  encircled  by  her  mur- 
derers, such  saintly  flower?  Eleven  days  after  her  death, 
or  a  full  fortnight  after  the  sacrifice  of  their  pastor,  on  the 
24th  of  the  month,  were  burned  two  of  his  followers,  one 
a  shoemaker,  the  other  a  peasant,  who  at  the  funeral  pyre 
sung  aloud  a  hymn  invoking  God,  the  Holy  Ghost,  to 
come  down.  The  pious  of  our  own  day,  reading  the 
record,  feels  yet  the  downward  rush  of  the  Hallowing 
Influence  thus  invoked.  Hubmeier's  writings,  as  well  as 
his  oral  preachments,  were  so  numerous  and  effective,  that 
on  the  Index  of  the  prohibited  books  of  the  Papal  Church 
his  name  appears,  in  some  editions,  in  no  less  than  four 
different  forms,  as  author  of  works  only  fit  for  the  flames. 
Now,  among  these  writings,  thus  denounced,  yet  in  some 

13* 


150  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

copies  surviving  this  stern  process  of  destruction,  is  one 
on  the  burning  "  Of  Heretics,"  in  which  he  had  taken 
ground  against  the  right  of  worldly  governments  to  com- 
pel religious  obedience  by  such  punishments.  More  than 
ii  century  before  the  days  of  Roger  Williams  this  German 
author  had  delivered  his  testimony;  and  husband  and 
wife,  by  fire  and  by  flood,  had  sealed  their  cheerful  and 
fearless  protest  for  Christ's  truth  and  for  the  secular  free- 
dom of  Christ's  church. 

In  the  days  when  Hubmeier  wrote  and  preached,  there 
wrote  and  preached  another  Baptist,  whose  name  is  more 
generally  known,  though,  intellectually  not  Hubmeier's 
peer ;  it  was  Thomas  Miinzer.  His  name  is  by  some  con- 
founded with  the  city  Miinster,  with  which  are  identi- 
fied far  darker  memories.  But  that  city  in  "Westphalia 
was  far  from  the  German  towns  where  Miinzer  labored, 
and  it  did  not  emerge  into  notice  in  the  Anabaptist 
tumults  until  some  years  after ;  as  Miinzer  died  in  1525, 
and  the  Miinster  Revolt  was  in  1534,  nine  years  after 
his  beheading. 

Miinzer  had  gone  beyond  the  rejection  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism. The  doctrine  of  equality  in  the  rule  of  the  cliurch, 
as  belonging  to  all  members,  led  him  to  sympathize  with 
the  Peasants'  War,  the  twelve  articles  of  which  were  in  the 
beginning  so  moderate  and  just  that  Voltaire  said,  a  Ly- 
curgus  would  have  signed  them.  Niebuhr,  the  critical 
historian  of  Rome,  said,  the  peasants  adopting  those  arti- 
cles were  in  the  beginning  in  the  right.  Bunsen,  the  late 
ambassador  of  Prussia  to  England,  a  civilian  himself  of 
high  standing,  has  said  of  the  same  document,   "As  to 


ANABAPTISTS   OF  THE   CONTINENT  AND   ENGLAND.  151 

what  they  demanded  in  their  twelve  articles,  all  impartial 
historians  declare,  that,  on  the  whole,  their  demands  were 
just;  and  all  of  them  are  now  the  law  of  Germany."  This 
is  the  language  of  a  German  jurist  and  scholar  naturally 
leaning  on  the  side  of  the  aristocratic  and  ruling  classes. 
The  words  appear  in  his  article  on  Luther,  contributed  to 
the  last  (eiglith)  edition  of  the  Encydopxdia  Britannica. 
Vericour,  a  scholar  of  Guizot,  and  dedicating  to  his  teacher 
his  work  on  Christian  Civilization,  has  said,  that  all  later 
historians  have  taken  a  more  favorable  view,  than  did  the 
earlier  writers,  of  Miinzer's  character.  But  he  erred,  as  a 
religious  teacher,  in  taking  what  he  called  the  "sword  of 
Gideon ;"  and  in  so  far  making  his  sympathies  with  the 
opi3ressed  peasantry  practical,  political,  and  indiscrimi- 
nate, that  he  became  involved  in  measures  of  revolt  and 
anarchy  which  he  never  probably  contemplated  in  the 
beginning  of  the  movement.  He  was  executed,  and  the 
rabble  of  the  undisciplined  peasantry  easily  routed,  but 
in  his  death-scene  he  warned  the  princes  against  cruel 
and  unjust  dealing  Avith  the  poj^ulace. 

Along  with  the  views  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  a 
larger  relief  from  tyrannical  exactions,  there  had.  been 
spread  in  Germany  and  in  Friesland,  a  northern  portion 
of  Holland,  and  in  Switzerland,  a  general  expectation  of 
the  near  approach  of  the  millennial  reign  of  Christ.  The 
prophecy  is  a  part  inseparable  from  the  text  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  of  the  Old  as  well.  If  in  the  Apocalypse 
is  recorded  God's  purpose  to  have  for  a  thousand  years 
his  Christ  reign,  Daniel  had,  in  ages  long  preceding,  wit- 
nessed of  a  time  when  the  kingdom  and  the  dominion  and 


152  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven 
should  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most 
High  God.  As  in  the  very  times  and  under  the  very  eyes 
of  inspired  apostles  there  were,  however,  men  wresting 
God's  Scriptures  unto  their  own  destruction,  we  need  not 
evidently  wonder  that  like  perversions,  and  with  equally 
fatal  results,  should  occur  in  later  and  less  favored  times. 
Men  who  sought  change  merely  for  its  own  sake — the  idle, 
the  insubordinate,  and  the  fanatical — became  known  as 
Anabaptists,  when,  in  truth,  the  Waldensians  and  the 
Hollanders,  their  allies  in  faith  and  religious  sympathy, 
were  generally  against  war,  and  against  the  use  of  the  oath, 
and  against  the  church's  sharing  in  civil  government  even. 
They  so  shunned  the  world  in  its  contaminations  as  to 
desire  escape  from  participation  in  the  offices  and  emol- 
uments of  political  governments. 

In  the  city  of  Miinster,  a  rich  town  of  "Westphalia,  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  had  found  acceptance. 
Rothman,  a  pastor  there,  had  become  a  Lutheran  first;  his 
people  had  risen  under  his  preachings  against  the  use  of 
images,  and  violently  removed  and  destroyed  them.  The 
feelings  of  the  Peasant  War  had  not  passed  away.  He 
and  his  associates  rejected  Infant  Baptism,  but  they  cast 
off  government  as  well  from  without,  excepting  that  of 
the  emperor.  They  had  prophetical  gifts  of  their  own. 
The  word  of  God  was  laid  aside  for  these  self-prompted 
oracles  assuming  to  speak  in  God's  name.  The  polygamy 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  a  modified  community  of  goods 
also  were  introduced.  Scenes  of  outrage  and  carnage  en- 
sued, that  may  well  be  veiled  in  abhorrence.    Within,  were 


ANABAPTISTS    OF   THE   CONTINENT    AND    ENGLAND.  153 

blood  and  riot  and  spiritual,  frenzy.  Without,  the  secular 
and  ecclesiastical  authorities  had  combined  to  besiege  the 
city  and  to  crush  the  revolt.  They  did  so.  sternly  and 
effectually.  The  misguided  tailor  of  Leyden,  who  acted 
as  king,  and  his  two  chief  associates,  were  subjected  to 
torture  in  having  their  flesh  torn  by  red-hot  pincers ;  and 
their  skeletons,  enclosed  in  iron  cages,  were  raised  on  high 
and  fastened  to  a  church-steeple,  there  to  remain  down 
to  our  own  times  a  ghastly  memorial  of  the  power  of 
religious  madness  and  of  the  fearful  hold  that  Satan,  if 
permitted,  may  attain  under  the  guise  of  holy  names  and. 
gracious  reforms.  Terrible  as  baleful  is  the  power  that 
godliness,  when,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  it  is  made 
gain,  and  gain,  when  it  is  supposed  to  be  godliness,  can 
exercise  over  the  order,  peace,  and  honor  of  general  soci- 
ety, of  the  household,  and  of  the  individual.  The  history 
has  been  often  repeated :  the  last  narrator  of  it,  the  Roman 
Catholic  scholar,  Cornelius.  Over  the  after-faith  of  the 
city  it  could  not  but  be  a  fatal  blight.  A  rigid  Catholicism 
has  been  since  the  unbroken  rule  and  the  undisputed 
creed  in  Miinster;  or,  as  Luther  phrased  it  when  he  heard 
of  the  suppression  of  the  revolt  and  the  death  of  the  in- 
surgents, in  one  of  his  sharp,  broad  sajungs,  cumbrous  and 
somewhat  coarse,  "  The  devil  is  turned  out,  but  the  devil's 
grandmother  has  come  back  in  his  place."  A  higher  than 
Pontiff  or  than  Reformer  had  long  since  left  the  pregnant 
warning,  that  change,  which  is  not  thorough  and  hearty 
and  heavenly,  is  often  one  that  invites  and  ultimately 
secures  a  more  rooted  possession  of  error  and  a  longer 
and  more  blighting  dynasty  of  evil.     The  house,  swept 


154  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

and  garnished,  is  inhabited  the  second  time,  but  now  by 
seven  evil  spirits  worse  than  the  first  who  had  been  tem- 
porarily barred  out. 

Do  we  wish  to  blink  the  fact  that  the  name  of  the  Ana- 
baptist became,  in  connection  with  the  errors  and  horrors 
of  the  Miinster  rebellion,  a  name  of  terror  to  rulers  and 
of  detestation  to  the  churches?  By  no  means.  Let  it 
stand,  but  let  it  be  duly  interpreted.  Menno  was  not  in 
it,  nor  was  Tauber,  nor  was  Hubmeier,  nor  was  Miinzer. 
So  far  was  it  from  their  views,  as  was  the  school  of  Marat 
from  the  school  of  La  Fayette,  as  was  the  school  of  Robes- 
pierre from  that  of  Brissot ;  though  coetaneous,  there  was 
no  internal,  vital  cohesion  between. 

So,  in  the  days  of  the  Stuart  Restoration  in  England, 
there  was  an  outbreak  under  Venner,  a  Millenarian  fanatic, 
but  a  Paedobaptist,  and  rather  bigoted  in  his  psedobaptism. 
Bunyan's  jailers  threatened  to  hold  him,  the  Baptist  in 
Bedford  jail,  liable  for  the  bloody  and  seditious  scenes  at 
London,  in  which  Bunyan  the  Baptist  had  neither  part 
nor  sympathy,  against  alike  all  his  principles,  against  every 
scratch  made  by  his  pen,  and  every  prayer  made  in  the 
ministrations  of  his  pulpit. 

When  Domitian,  the  imperial  ruler,  was  killing  flies, 
one  of  his  favorite  amusements,  at  the  imperial  capital, 
suppose  that  there  had  been  brought  to  the  tyrant  some 
lines  of  the  Apocalyptic  vision  received  by  his  prisoner, 
the  aged  John,  in  the  isle  of  banishment,  Patmos. 
Would  the  despot  have  been  by  any  principle  of  reason 
or  equity  entitled  to  charge  upon  the  old  apostle  the 
scenes  of  lawlessness  that  the  apostle  had  been  deploring 


ANABAPTISTS    OF   THE    CONTINENT    AND    ENGLAND.  155 

and  condemning  as  occurring  in  a  community  nomin- 
ally and  professedly  a  Christian  chnrch  at  Thyatira?  In 
his  Master's  name  John  denounced  the  wrath  of  Heaven 
as  against  the  children  of  Jezebel,  there  retaining  their 
practices  and  principles.  Was  his  gospel  justly  a  sharer  in 
the  dishonors  that  it  thus  repudiated  ?  So  in  later  times, 
when  the  great  Jansenist  body  of  France — so  illustrious 
for  talent  and  piety  and  for  sufferings  in  the  cause  of 
truth — had,  in  their  later  days,  some  who  became  known 
as  the  Convulsionaires,  dazzled  by  the  study  of  unfulfilled 
prophecy,  seeing  visions  and  working  miracles,  and  often 
passing  into  scenes  of  unhappy  disorder,  were  the  illus- 
trious men  and  women  of  the  earlier  days,  or  those  of  the 
later  days,  like  Sylvester  de  Sacy  the  Orientalist,  and 
Koyer  Collard  the  publicist  and  statesman,  the  orator  and 
philosopher — Jansenists  of  our  own  day — were  these 
men,  we  ask,  responsible  for  the  errors  of  co-religionists 
which  they  neither  countenanced  nor  shared? 

So,  of  the  French  Protestant  body,  how  noble  is  tlie 
great  record  of  the  French  Huguenots.  How  much  did 
they  suffer  at  home ;  and  how  blessed  was  the  influence 
which  they  bore  abroad  to  Prussia  and  Holland,  to 
England  and  to  Scotland,  to  Ireland  and  to  our  own 
North  America.  Not  long  since  a  French  man  of  science 
recorded  his  sense  of  the  Divine  Nemesis,  that  among  the 
soldiers  who  pressed  the  siege  of  Paris  around  the  writer's 
place  of  study,  so  many  were  under  the  banners  of 
Germany  serving  against  France  as  the  children  of 
Huguenot  exiles,  that  Louis  XIV.  had  hounded  and 
peeled,  returning,  in  God's  mysterious  arrangements,  to 


156  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

plague  the  land  where  their  forefathers  had  heen  so 
cruelly  treated.  Yet  all  the  history  of  French  Protestant- 
ism is  not  thus  illustrious.  Among  some  who  carried  on 
the  war  in  Southern  France  was  no  little  fanaticism.  The 
Camisard  was,  though  heroic,  at  times  most  frenzied. 
And  their  brethren  in  England  became,  some  of  them, 
what  were  called  "  the  French  prophets,"  who,  with  Lacy 
and  other  Englishmen  as  their  dupes  or  helpers,  yielded 
to  Avild  excesses  and  provoked  a  just  indignation  and 
repressal.  But  this  was  not  the  fault  of  the  great  body. 
Yet  the  handful,  thus  offending,  were  not  soon  extinct,  or 
the  flame  of  their  madness  without  its  remote  kindlings 
and  ravages.  Out  of  these  French  prophets,  on  English 
soil,  came  Ann  Lee,  the  Mother,  as  they  call  her,  the  femi- 
nine incarnation  of  the  Godhead,  as  they  hold,  and  the 
first  founder  of  the  Shakers  amongst  ourselves.  With  all 
their  thrift  and  their  worldly  prosperity,  is  the  record  of 
religious  delusion  thus  begun  one  to  be  fastened  on  the 
great  Huguenot  body  whom  Sully  and  Mornay  and 
Coligny  led,  whom  Henry  IV.  deserted,  and  whom  Louis 
XIV.  so  cruelly  deceived,  extruded,  and  dragooned  ? 

And  is  American  Christianity,  liable  justly,  before  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  for  the  great  Mormon  movement, 
with  its  forged  Scriptures,  its  polygamy,  its  murderous 
tribe  of  Dan,  and  its  terrible  atrocities  and  profanations  ? 
The  nation  deplores  what  it  cannot  utterly  eliminate. 
Far  as  it  may,  it  is  bound  to  discourage,  to  circumscribe, 
and  in  all  evangelical  earnestness  to  resist  and  expose  and 
uproot  the  evil. 

Yet,  in  the  sweeping  generalizations  to  which  some  so 


ANABAPTISTS   OF   THE   CONTINENT  AND   ENGLAND.  157 

readily  and  implicitly  resort,  some  might  make  ISIormon- 
ism  a  feature  of  American  society,  when  the  mass  of  its 
converts  are  of  European  growth  and  migration,  the 
fruit  of  the  neglect  of  established  churches  as  shown 
toward  the  population  of  their  own  territory.  So  some 
might  hold  the  memory  of  John  Calvin  blotted  with  the 
false  faith  and  wild  excesses  of  Ann  Lee;  might  brand 
the  beloved  disciple  and  last  survivor  of  the  apostles  as 
guilty  of  collusion  with  the  iniquity  of  the  Thyatiran 
church. 

Individualism  is  the  glory  of  our  nation,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  chief  distinctions  of  our  religious  denomination; 
and  Hase,  the  church  historian,  in  his  monograph  on  the 
men  of  Miinster,  calls  our  country  the  land  of  religious 
individualism,  and  trusts  that  our  denomination  may 
here  forego  their  study  of  prophecy.  Far  as  the  disposi- 
tion reigns  to  constitute  the  student's  own  fancy  the  great 
standard  of  truth,  the  employment  may  be  perilous.  But 
to  neglect,  against  Christ's  own  warnings,  the  signs  of  the 
future,  is  to  become  blind  to  the  true  duties  of  the  present. 
It  is  the  confession  of  great  theologians,  in  Denmark  and 
in  Britain  and  in  Germany,  that  their  own  churches  have 
been  too  indifferent  to  the  significance  of  the  protests 
which  God's  Spirit  had  drawn,  as  in  advance,  against 
errors  yet  to  rise,  and  its  portraitures  of  changes  and  de- 
liverances which  Providence  had  in  reserve.  The  elder 
Confession  of  the  English  Established  Church  denounced 
Millenarianism,  a  contemplation  of,  and  turning  toward, 
the  future  prospects  of  Christ's  church.  •  But  Mede  in  the 
Stuarts'  times  and  Elliott  in  our  own,  and  even  Hurd, 

14 


158  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  friend  of  Warburton,  in  his  more  sluggish  days  of 
the  English  Establishment,  regarded  this  as  an  error,  and 
lavished  thought  and  toil  on  these  pages  of  God's  Old  and 
New  Testament.  So  in  Denmark,  Martensen,  a  theologian 
of  no  common  eminence,  considers  it  an  error  of  Luther 
and  his  church  that  they  took  ground  against  Millenari- 
anism.  Bengel,  one  of  the  highest  names  of  the  German 
Christians  in  the  study  of  God's  word,  was,  if  not  a  suc- 
cessful, yet  a  profound,  collator  of  and  searcher  into  those 
prophetical  Scriptures  which  our  early  Baptist  Fathers  are 
charged  with  overvaluing. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt,  we  judge,  among  thought- 
ful believers,  that  the  times  of  the  generations  that  are  to 
follow  our  own  will  require,  not  less  than  our  own,  that 
Christians  should  give  some  share  of  their  studies  to  the 
memorials  which  the  Ruler  of  the  ages  has  set  up  along 
the  pathway  of  history,  as  notes  that  the  God  of  prophecy 
has  been  there  far  in  advance  of  his  people.  The  world 
cannot  rend  the  continuity  of  the  centuries.  We  inherit 
the  examples  of  our  predecessors,  and  we  are  to  share  in 
the  responsibility  of  our  remotest  successors.  He  who  is 
in  the  Apocalypse  presented  as  the  God  of  the  final  judg- 
ment, is,  in  a  certain  subordinate  sense,  judging  even  now 
the  families  and  the  neighborhoods  and  the  nationalities 
of  this  nineteenth  century.  The  final  and  full  judgment 
is  future,  but  what  lawyers  call  the  "interlocutory  judg- 
ments "  are  around  us  and  over  us.  The  title  of  the  Mes- 
siah, Judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  is  sometimes  mis- 
read by  our  forgetting  the  force  of  the  older  English  word. 
"Quick,"  in  the  mouths   of  our   forefathers   and  of  the 


ANABAPTISTS  OF  THE   CONTINENT   AND   ENGLAND.  159 

makers  of  our  English  version,  meant  "the  living,"  those 
selling,  planning,  fretting,  and  trifling,  studying,  suffering, 
pining,  and  dying  around  us.  And  the  Christ,  the  Omni- 
present Emmanuel,  would  have  every  pursuit  and  en- 
gagement of  this  daily  living  throng,  these  quick  ones, 
now  drawing  quick  breath,  but  whose  names  are  soon  to 
fit  into  the  obituary  roll  and  the  cemetery  register — he 
would  have  the  "quick"  of  earth's  present  tenantry  under- 
stand, that  by  every  sentence  of  Scripture  and  by  every 
incident  of  providence  they  are  bound  to  remember  him, 
the  Wakeful  Judge,  and  him,  the  Swift  Witness,  Infalli- 
ble, Inevitable,  and  Irrefutable. 

Faithful  to  the  Scripture,  and  faithful  to  the  Spirit,  and 
mindful  of  the  Sacrifice,  and  vigilant  for  the  grace  ever, 
near,  and  the  work  ever  widening,  the  people  of  the  living 
God  have  a  power  that  needs  yet  to  be  developed,  for  it 
draws  on  the  illimitable  resources  of  Omnipotence.  If 
he  be  ever  Avith  his  church  Avhen  that  church  is  efficient 
and  watchful,  devout,  lowly,  and  diligent,  they  need  never 
despond.  The  Elder  Brother  binds  us  to  his  blessed  tasks, 
not  only  by  his  own  cross,  but  by  each  instance  of  the 
fidelity  of  our  innumerable  martyrs. 

At  the  risk  of  wearying  you,  we  take  from  the  pages  of 
Hase,  not  of  our  communion,  and  regarded  as  of  the 
Rationalist  school  of  thinkers.  It  is  but  a  leaf  from  the 
story  of  simple  loyalty.  In  1527,  some  Anabaptists  (as 
they  were  called)  were  burned  in  the  house  where  they 
had  met,  and  with  the  edifice.  A  young  maiden,  about 
sixteen  years  old  and  of  great  beauty,  the  persecutors 
would  have  spared,  would  she  but  recant  her  faith.    Find- 


160  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ing  her  inflexible,  the  executioner  took  her  by  the  arm, 
led  her  to  the  horse-trough,  and  bowed  her  beneath  the 
water  until  she  drowned,  and  then  the  corpse  was  burned. 
In  a  town  of  Switzerland,  a  foreigner,  an  Anabaptist,  was 
led  to  the  rack  and  laid  on  it,  with  the  promise,  that  if  he 
would  but  tell  his  dwelling-place  and  his  fellow-believers' 
names,  he  should  have  life  and  freedom.  His  reply  was 
calm  :  "  I  am  earth-born  ;  the  earth  is  my  country,  and  it 
will  be  my  grave.  My  body  is  in  your  power.  Tear  it 
and  burn  it  as  you  like ;  it  troubles  me  not.  The  Lord 
has  closed  my  lips  to  prevent  my  saying  a  word  that 
should  harm  my  brethren,  for  their  time  is  not  yet  come. 
My  soul  has  no  distress ;  it  overflows  with  joy  from  the 
inward  consolations  with  which  God  is  filling  it."  As  the 
executioner  urged  him  to  name  his  fellow-disciples,  and 
so  relieve  himself  of  the  torture,  the  stout  confessor  with 
antique  simiilicity  spat  into  his  face,  with  the  words, 
"  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan ;  thou  savorest  not  the  things 
that  be  of  God."  Finally  released  with  stern  menaces,  his 
parting  utterance  to  the  enemies  was,  "Ye  have  seen  a 
confessor  of  the  new  church  to  your  own  condemnation." 

The  Lord  who  won  such  resolute  witnesses  is  indeed 
Judge  of  the  living.  A  faith  in  him,  intense,  vivid,  earn- 
est, and  persistent,  becomes  a  new  power  in  the  earth, 
Avith  which  the  literatures  of  the  earth  may  puzzle  them- 
selves, but  it  mocks  their  most  heartless  and  malign 
mockeries,  and  it  defies  their  highest  power  and  wrath. 

''  The  Anabaptists  "  is  the  name  still  given  to  the  commu- 
nities in  Switzerland  and  Germany  which  are  universally 
acknowledged   to   be   of  great  simplicity,  industry,  and 


AXABAPTISTS   OF   THE    CONTINENT   AND    ENGLAND.  161 

blameless  moralit}-.  A  French  writer  has  depicted,  in 
warmest  admiration,  one  such  community,  whicli  he,  a 
cliild  of  Paris,  visited,  to  be  filled,  in  surveying  it,  with 
astonishment,  delight,  and  reverence.  The  Anabaptists  of 
the  Vosges  are  like  the  Dunkers  of  our  own  country,  and 
like  the  Mennonites  of  Southern  Russia,  long  sheltered 
there,  but  quitting  their  homes  because  the  government 
of  Russia  required  of  them  military  service,  to  which,  like 
the  Friends,  they  are  on  principle  opposed.  You  have 
heard,  but  a  few  months  since,  of  their  transit  from  our 
own  port.  New  York,  to  settlements  in  one  of  our  Western 
States.  In  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  Sheridan's  raid 
encountered  religionists  of  this  class,  but  long  settled  there. 
Miss  Cheeseborough,  one  of  our  writers  of  fiction,  has 
devoted  a  volume  to  the  traits  and  virtues  of  a  similar 
body,  long  ago  planted  in  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania. 

Before  the  birth  even  of  the  frenzied  rioters  and  revolt- 
ers  of  Miinster,  views  prevailed  in  a  portion  of  the  Wal- 
densians,  those  of  them  rejecting  infant  baptism,  and 
among  some  of  the  Moravian  brethren,  utterly  op- 
posed to  war  and  to  the  use  of  oaths  and  to  civil  ofiice- 
holding.  It  was  a  mistaken  view,  as  we  think,  of  the 
Christian's  due  estrangement  from  the  world.  But 
because  it  did  exist,  and  sway  large  bodies  of  hunted 
and  imperilled  disciples  of  Christ,  it  seems  alike  cruel 
and  ludicrous  to  commit  the  anachronism,  of  making  the 
fanatics  of  A\'estphalia,  who  were  ferociously  belligerent, 
the  spiritual  ancestry  of  a  body  far  older,  and  peaceful 
and  blameless  and  pure,  who  would  not  lift  up  sword  or 
even  take  an  oath. 

14*  L 


162  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

To  show  the  fall  absurdity  of  accepting  such  lawless 
fanatics — "  the  scum  of  the  Reformation,"  as  they  have 
been  called,  one  of  the  side  eddies  in  that  great  movement 
of  modern  history — as  if  they  constituted  the  fountain- 
head  of  our  own  body,  let  us  suppose  that  the  earlier 
years  of  our  own  Revolution  had  been  as  scantily 
furnished  with  writers  and  presses,  as  was  the  Europe  of 
the  earlier  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  few  wrote, 
let  us  suppose,  except  enemies  of  the  patriot  cause;  and 
let  us  imagine  that  the  records  of  the  Revolutionists  were 
generally  confiscated  and  burned,  leaving  a  comparative 
dearth  of  annalists  and  registers.  Inquiry  is  made,  under 
these  disadvantageous  conditions,  from  what  body  of 
agitators  sprang  the  movement  that  finally  ushered  in  a 
Washington  and  a  Hancock,  the  Adamses,  and  Jay  and 
Hamilton  and  Jefferson  and  Lee,  and  other  worthies. 
Then  let  us  suppose  there  should  a  writer  present  him- 
self whose  testimony  is  that  from  his  best  researches  the 
Cowboys  of  West  Chester,  in  your  own  State,  were  the  pro- 
genitors of  American  freedom.  They  were,  it  is  true,  he 
would  courteously  state,  a  quite  disreputable  body ;  meet- 
ing and  working  by  night;  sparing  no  man's  cattle,  and 
murdering  where  plunder  could  not  otherwise  be  secured ; 
and  dashing  down,  now  on  loyalists  and  noAV  on  patriots, 
as  might  be  most  convenient;  lawless  as  the  raiders  of  the 
old  Scottish  border,  witli  very  lax  notions  of  the  rights  of 
property,  and  a  terror  to  the  orderly  in  either  camp  of  the 
combatants.  But  they  had,  this  searcher  into  antique 
and  broken  records  would  remark,  gradually  refined  and 
reformed ;  become  more  amenable  to  reason ;  and,  in  fact, 


ANABAPTISTS   OF   THE   CONTINENT   AND    ENGLAND.  163 

were  really  and  indubitably  the  great  representatives  of 
the  cause  which,  beginning  at  Bunker  Hill,  closed  its 
battles  at  Yorktown,  and  made  you  a  nation  free  and  one. 
Against  this  theory  would  at  once  be  alleged  a  chronolog- 
ical difficulty — that  they  did  not  begin  their  plunder  and 
their  marauding  until  after  the  Revolutionary  conflict 
had  well  commenced,  and  that,  in  demeanor  and  princi- 
ple and  character  and  influence,  they  were  not  quite 
akin  to  the  Continental  Congress,  or  to  the  spirits  that 
drafted  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  The  cham- 
pions of  such  origin  would  reply,  that  very  distinguished 
representatives  of  the  statesmanship  and  patriotism  of  the 
Revolution  lived  in  that  same  West  Chester  County ;  that 
neighborhood  implied  identity  of  pursuit,  character,  and 
party ;  and  that  it  Avas  a  matter  of  preposterous  national 
pride  to  shrink  from  recognizing  such  as  the  real  origin 
for  the  institutions  of  these  United  States  of  America. 

Yet  the  dissonance  and  the  chronological  entanglement 
in  such  installation  of  the  cattle-stealers  and  red-handed 
prowlers  of  the  borders  as  the  true  fathers  and  founders 
of  American  freedom  would  only  be  a  parallel  to  the  en- 
deavor to  impose  upon  the  Baptist  Christians  of  the  world 
such  a  group  as  John  of  Leyden  and  Knipperdoling  of 
Miinster  as  the  real  originators  of  our  principles  and 
practice. 

Some  of  you  saw  with  your  own  eyes,  in  the  days  of 
the  draft-riots,  the  mob  that  plundered  and  burned  orphan 
asylums,  hung  negroes  to  the  lamp-post,  and  carried  for  a 
time  misrule  and  dismay  throughout  your  peopled  city  in 
the  very  crisis  of  the  nation's  agonizing  strife  for  existence. 


164  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

Had  a  foreigner,  as  you  gazed  on  the  grim,  fierce  visages 
of  that  ominous  crowd,  assured  you  that  they  were,  these 
same  men,  guardians  of  the  nation's  libert}^,  honor,  and 
life ;  that  in  them  you  were  to  see  the  flower  of  her 
chivalry,  and  the  highest  exhibition  of  her  energy,  you 
might  be  somewhat  astonished,  but  not  so  easily  con- 
vinced. If  it  were  to  be  told  you  in  confidence,  what 
history  in  some  later  day  will  probably  tell  aloud,  who 
were  the  guiding  instigators  of  that  riot ;  and  were  you  to 
be  assured,  that  it  was  by  their  skill,  by  the  far-sighted 
but  unnamed  and  retiring  prompters  of  the  mob,  that  Wall 
street,  the  avenue  of  your  banks  and  custom-house  and 
Bub-treasury  and  mint,  was  guarded;  that  it  was  owing 
to  their  patriotic  caution  and  vigilance,  that  the  long  street 
was  not  left  with  every  building  dismantled  and  her  trea- 
sury-vaults plundered  of  the  last  dollar,  like  some  eel, 
flayed,  disembowelled,  and  headless,  dragging  its  sinuous 
length  from  Broadway  to  the  river,  one  line  of  irreme- 
diable ruin,  the  corpse  of  the  embodied  national  credit; 
if  you  heard  whilst  gazing  on  such  patriots,  that  their 
unseen  and  bashful  leaders  by  their  un  wash  en  hands 
defended  and  protected  the  riches  of  the  metropolis  and 
the  unity  of  the  Republic, — you  would  find  the  comment 
rather  hard  of  belief,  however  quiet  you  might  i^rudently 
make  your  dissent. 

Would  it  be  more  so  than  when  reading  the  histories 
of  what  good  men  have  done  and  what  they  have  been 
in  the  past,  and  of  what  bad  men  beside  them  have 
attempted,  and  it  may  be  have  accomplished,  of  evil 
and  misrule,  to  believe,  that  in  the  church  of  God  evil 


ANABAPTISTS   OF   THE   CONTINENT   AND   ENGL.\JJJD.  165 

has  begotten  good,  and  iniquity  has  ripened  and  elevated 
itself  into  true  piety?  A  wiser  Judge,  reading  alike  the 
living  and  the  dead,  has  decided  that  thistles  do  not  bear 
figs,  and  that  men  can  scarce  plant  thorns  and  expect 
grapes  as  the  fruitage. 

The  great  lesson  of  all,  in  the  evil  and  in  the  good,  is, 
that  it  behooves  us  to  know  of  what  spirit  we  ourselves 
are,  wdaat  Spirit  we  invoke,  and  upon  what  prompting  and 
helping  we  lean,  in  the  time  of  our  utter  exhaustion.  The 
Sjjirit  of  God,  invoked  and  obeyed  by  a  loyal  church,  is 
the  fountain  of  holy  living  and  the  pledge  of  fraternal 
unity.  Accept  in  his  stead  your  own  feeble  reason,  the 
public  opinion  of  the  masses,  the  voice  of  the  many,  or 
the  cry  of  the  sharp-sighted  few,  and  your  feet  must 
stumble.  But  a  God  giving  his  Spirit  liberally  and  with- 
out upbraiding,  evermore  the  banner  of  his  own  people, 
their  Jehovah-nissi,  carries  unity,  liberty,  and  triumph. 
"  Not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,"  saith 
the  Lord  of  Hosts.  And  all  the  galleries  of  earth's  varied 
history,  and  all  the  deep  mines  of  man's  profoundest  and 
most  patient  research,  will  ultimately  give  back  the  loyal 
echo  of  that  great  proclamation,  "  Where  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is,  there  is  liberty."  It  is  the  brightness  of  Pentecost; 
it  is  the  dawn  of  millennial  splendors ;  it  is  the  very 
atmosphere  of  that  city  and  land  where  God's  people  walk, 
to  go  out  no  more  for  ever,  their  earthly  errors  all  thor- 
oughly unlearned,  and  their  mortal  discords  all  finally 
hushed,  in  the  One  Presence. 


vri. 
RATIONALISM 

IN    ITS 

RELATIOI^fS  TO   OUR  CHURCHES. 


RATIONALISM 

IN   ITS 

EELATIOI^S  TO   OTJE  CHURCHES. 


Those  avIio  may  have  looked  into  the  reprint,  issued  at 
London  some  two  years  since,  that  would  reproduce  in 
brown  paper  and  rude  type  the  first  edition  of  Bunyan's 
immortal  Pilgrim,  will  have  observed  the  change  that  the 
great  dreamer  made  in  passing  to  his  second  edition  from 
the  first  form  of  the  work,  as  to  certain  talks  held  by 
Christian  at  the  beginning  of  his  way  with  a  Mr.  Worldly 
Wiseman.  This  gentleman  undertakes  to  relieve  the  bur- 
dened pilgrim.  He  and  Mr.  Legality  and  "the  j)retty 
young  man,  his  son,  Mr.  Civility,"  are  presented  as  mis- 
'  guiding  the  forlorn  traveller  at  his  very  outset,  when, 
under  the  instructions  of  Evangelist,  he  is,  beneath  the 
shadows  of  grim  Sinai,  aiming  for  the  Wicket  Gate  and 
for  the  Cross  beyond  it. 

The  allusions  are,  on  the  part  of  the  great  allegorist,  to 
a  school  of  Christian  teachers,  then  represented  by  many 
illustrious  names,  as  thinkers,  scholars,  and  preachers,  in 
the  Established  Church,  and  who  were  called  the  Lati- 
tudinarian  divines.  Among  them  was  the  Mr.  Fowler, 
afterward  a  bishop,  with  whom  Bunyan  had  a  contro- 
ls 169 


170  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

versy,  a  man  of  worth  and  culture,  but  who  assumed 
toward  the  tinker  the  tone  of  scornful  superiority  which 
jDOsterity  has  judged  by  no  means  warranted,  and  that  in 
justice  might  well  have  been  reversed.  As  a  man  of 
genius  not  only,  but  in  acquaintance  with  his  Bible,  and 
as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  grappling  with  men's  hearts 
and  swaying  men  to  a  better  life,  the  bespattered  and  im- 
prisoned dissenter  was  immeasurably  above  the  Latitudi- 
narian,  Edward  Fowler,  on  whose  brow  came  the  mitre 
of  Gloucester.  Burnet,  Barrow,  Cumberland,  Cudworth, 
Whichcote,  John  Smith,  and  Tillotson,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury— held,  in  some  respects,  to  be  among  the  church- 
men of  that  day  the  greatest  of  their  preachers — all  be- 
longed to  a  new  group  of  teachers,  who,  alienated  alike 
from  the  Puritanism  of  the  earlier  Established  Church 
and  from  the  Ritualism  of  Archbishop  Laud,  turned 
men's  minds  from  doctrine  and  discipline  to  conduct, 
insisted  on  the  morals  of  the  gospel,  relied  much  on  the 
philosojjhy  of  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  Avorld,  and  gave, 
beyond  doubt,  to  the  illustrious  dreamer  the  originals  of 
his  "Worldly  Wiseman,  Legality,  and  Civility,  the  "  pretty 
young  man,"  domiciled  "  in  the  village  of  Morality." 
Their  theology,  borrowed,  in  part  at  least,  from  the  Re- 
monstrant, or  Arminian,  j)arty  in  the  Church  of  Holland, 
led  in  a  later  generation  to  an  approach  to  Socinianism, 
and  helped  to  prepare  that  descent  of  so  many  of  the 
aristocracy  of  Britain  into  the  Deism  or  Naturalism 
which  Butler  in  his  Analogy  deplores  as  having  in  his 
day  become  so  lamentably  prevalent.  Their  name,  the 
Latitudinarians,  grew  from  the  breadth,  the  latitude,  of 


RATIONALISM   AND  OUR  CHUIICUES.  171 

interpretation  which  they  gave  to  the  old  formularies  of 
doctrine,  and  the  Avider  comprehension  they  would  grant 
to  certain  forms  of  religious  error  within  church  bounds. 
Its  tendency,  though  not  its  creed,  was  essentially  what 
in  later  days  has  received  the  appellation  of  Rationalism. 
This  term,  in  our  own  times,  is  by  some  used  in  a  good 
sense;  by  others  unfavorably,  in  the  intent  of  reproach- 
ing the  first  principles  and  ultimate  tendencies  of  the 
system.  The  Latitudinarians  of  the  days  of  the  Stuarts 
would,  in  most  important  elements,  be  found  one  in  tem- 
per and  aim  with  the  Rationalists  of  later  Germany, 
France,  and  America. 

Now,  our  own  denomination  in  Britain  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent has  been  not  infrequently,  but  most  unwarrantably, 
as  we  judge,  charged  with  sliding  naturally  into  the  more 
advanced  forms  of  Rationalism.  One  of  the  old  scholars 
of  the  Netherlands,  strong  in  his  acquaintance  with  Latin 
and  Greek,  but  wavering  rather  discreditably  in  his  re- 
ligious affiliations  as  interest  or  ease  might  dictate,  and 
ultimately  joining  himself,  with  idolatrous  honors  to  the 
Virgin  Mary,  to  the  Romish  communion — Justus  Lipsius 
— ^has  said,  "An  Anabaptist  is  but  an  ignorant  Socinia;n; 
a  Socinian  is  but  a  learned  Anabaptist."  Looking  back- 
ward to  mediaeval  times  and  to  apostolical,  and  then  turn- 
ing the  glance  forward  from  the  Reformation  down  to  our 
own  age,  the  adage  lacks  confirmation.  It  may  be  curt 
and  keen,  but  it  is  not  true.  Turn  to  the  statement  of 
the  two  eminent  Hollander  scholars,  Ypeij  and  Dermout, 
both  attached  to  the  National  or  Reformed  Church  of 
that  country,  and  writing  its   history.     They  have  occa- 


172  lectuhes  on  baptist  history. 

sion,  in  the  course  of  their  extended  work,  to  allude  to 
the  remote  antiquity  of  our  own  so-called  Anabaptist  con- 
fessors ;  and  thus  they  describe  our  body,  using  for  it  four 
several  names,  as  attached  to  it  at  various  periods  of 
history  :* 

"  We  have  already  seen  that  the  Baptists — those  who  in 
former  times  were  named  Anabaptists,  and  in  later  days 
Mennonites — were  originally  Waldensians,  the  men  who, 
in  the  history  of  the  church,  in  times  so  far  back,  have 
obtained  a  well-deserved  renown.  In  consequence,  the 
Baptists  may  be  regarded  as  being  from  of  old  the  only 
religious  denomination  that  have  continued  from  the 
times  of  the  apostles,  as  a  Christian  society  who  have 
kept  the  evangelical  faith  pure  through  all  the  ages 
hitherto.  The  constitution,  never  perverted  internally  or 
externally,  of  the  society  of  the  Baptists,  serves  them  as 
a  proof  of  that  truth,  contested  by  the  Komish  Church, 
that  the  reformation  of  religion,  such  as  was  brought 
about  in  the  sixteenth  century,  was  necessary,  was  indis- 
pensable, and  serves,  too,  as  the  refutation,  at  the  same 
time,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  delusive  fancy,  that  their 
own  is  the  oldest  church  society." 

Ypeij  held  an  ecclesiastical  professorship  and  was  a 
voluminous  author  on  historical  themes,  and  his  various 
works  are  yet  largely  cited.  Dermout,  his  associate  in  the 
history,  was  a  Reformed  Church  preacher  at  The  Hague. 
Our  missionary,  William  Ward,  who,  in  his  visit  to  Europe 
and  America  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  made  a  brief 
stay  in   Holland,  describes  Dermout  as  chaplain  to  the 

*  Gerchied.  d.  Nederl.  Hervormde  Kcrk,  t.  i.,  1819,  p.  148. 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR  CHURCHES.  173 

court,  The  Hague  being  the  city  of  the  royal  residence  * 
Sepp,  one  of  our  Hollander  Baptist  brethren,  a  scholar  of 
reputation,  in  his  essay— which  in  1860  obtained  the  prize 
of  the  Teyler  Society— on  the  theologians  of  Holland  from 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  rates  Dermout  as  among  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  nation's  preachers  in  his  own  age.  f  Men,  then, 
such  as  Ypeij  and  Dermout,  from  their  social  and  ecclesi- 
astical position  little  liable  to  undue  and  over-favorable 
views  of  our  annals  and  of  our  religious  influence,  would 
seem,  by  no  means,  to  sustain  the  judgment  of  Lipsius  as 

*  C.  M.  Van  Der  Kemp,  in  his  work  animadverting  upon  Ypeij 
and  Dermout  for  what  he  supposes  undue  honors  accorded  to  Erasmus, 
a  bias  against  Calvinists,  and  a  leaning  too  marked  in  favor  of  the 
early  leaders  of  the  Arminians,  De  Eere  der  Ncderlandsche  Hervormde 
Kerh  Gehandhasfd  (ecjen  Ypeij  en  Dermout  (Rotterdam,  1830,  3  vols.), 
at  vol.  i.,  p.  2,  describes  one  of  our  authors,  Ypeij,  as  "professor  of 
theology  in  connection  with  the  Reformed  Church  in  a  distinguished 
university  of  our  land,"  and  the  other,  Dermout,  as  "  by  his  position 
the  regular  teacher  in  one  of  our  most  distinguished  churches,  court 
chaplain  to  His  Majesty,  and  secretary  and  permanent  member  of  the 
Supreme  Reformed  Church  Synod." 

f  Pragmatische  Geschiedenis  der  Thcolocjie  Eier  te  Lande,  Sedert 
Eel  Laatst  der  Vorige  Eeuw  lot  op  Omen  Tijd,  Door  Christian 
Sepp,  Predikant  bij  de  Doopsgezende  Gemeente  te  Leider.  Uitgegwen 
door  Teyler's  Godgeleerd  Genootschap,  Haarlem,  1860.  The  sub- 
ject was  presented  for  competition  by  the  society  in  1858.  Sepp's  esti- 
mate of  Dermout  as  a  preacher  appears  at  pp.  430,  431,  where  he 
states  that  Borger,  one  of  Holland's  most  brilliant  scholars,  early  lost, 
was  accustomed  to  rate  Dermout,  as  being  above  even  Van  der  Palm, 
who,  as  scholar,  Avritcr,  and  preacher,  has  won  a  reputation,  not  only 
pervading  Holland,  but  reaching  Britain  and  our  own  country  also. 
15  * 


174  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

to  the  imputed  spiritual  kinsmanship  between  Baptist 
and  Unitarian.  Yet  wlien  our  denominational  views  bid 
men  go,  individually,  to  the  word  of  God,  and  to  implore 
personally  tlie  Spirit  of  God,  and  to  accept  distinctly, 
and  apart  from  household  ancestry  or  sacerdocy,  the 
grace  and  rule  of  Christ,  the  development  thus  given  to 
the  individual  soul  might  seem  to  lead,  rapidly  and 
easily,  to  the  undue  and  distorted  aggrandizement  of 
authority,  in  the  individual's  own  recourse  to  his  solitary, 
unaided  judgment ;  and  there  have  been,  in  single  persons 
and  in  communities,  divergencies  toward  this  form  of 
error.  Paul  held  that  the  old  classic  world  "  by  wisdom 
knew  not  God."  The  Scriptures,  ages  ago,  assured  us, 
that  to  lean  to  our  own  understanding  was  not  prudent, 
nor  wise,  nor  safe ;  and  warned  us,  that  the  man  trusting 
in  his  own  heart  is  a  fool.  Self-sufiiciency,  in  the  concerns 
that  bind  man's  spirit  to  his  Maker  in  religion,  creed,  and 
worship,  bars  out,  in  a  certain  deplorable  sense,  the  effi- 
ciency of  divine  grace,  and  the  all-sufficiency  of  the  God 
who  would,  willingly,  be  "All-in-all "  to  his  people,  and 
cannot  be  this,  when  they  affect  to  be  all-in-all  to  them- 
selves. 

Now,  as  against  the  men  who  employ  Rationalism  in  a 
favorable  and  eulogistic  sense  only,  and  who  suppose 
themselves  to  find  all  the  reforms  of  society  and  each 
ascending  stage  of  social  progress  and  national  betterment, 
in  the  triumph  of  Rationalism,  it  needs  to  be  remembered 
that  these  modern  citers  of  the  appellation  give  to  the 
term  Rationalist  a  sense  entirely  different  from  that  in 
which  the  theologians  who  first  coined  and  who  had  long 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  175 

used  the  word  understood  the  phrase  themselves  and 
wished  it  to  he  understood  by  their  readers.  Its  first  users 
would  denote  by  it  the  tendency  of  man  to  set  his  own  ra- 
tiocinations, as  prior  and  overbearing  in  their  authority,  in 
rivalry  with  the  utterances  of  God  ;  the  disposition  whicli 
leads  us,  so  often  and  so  easily,  to  trust  Avhat  yet  care- 
ful observers  so  mistrust  in  their  own  case — first  impres- 
sions ;  to  rate  the  precipitate  prejudgment  of  the  disciple's 
mind  above  the  deliberate  and  final  judgments  of  tlie  Mas- 
ter's mind.  The  oj^inion,  in  a  question  of  morals  or  creed, 
of  the  great  Englishman,  called  yet  by  the  adhesive  title  of 
the  "judicious  "  Hooker,  would  perhaps,  from  the  bashful 
humility  of  the  good  pastor,  come  later  than  the  prompt 
utterances,  on  the  same  question,  of  his  parish  sexton. 
The  perter  and  earlier  speaker  would  be  likely  to  err  in 
forgetting  the  Scripture  rule  enunciated  by  a  speaker 
who  is  to  be  the  world's  Final  Judge :  "  Judge  not  accord- 
ing to  the  appearance,  but  judge  righteous  judgment." 
Yet  it  might  be  worth  while  to  wait,  after  the  ready  deliv- 
erance of  the  bell-ringer,  for  the  more  tardy  deliverance 
of  the  man  wont  to  occupy  the  pulpit,  though  the  last 
were  of  hesitating  enunciation.  Now,  many  a  question 
of  opinion  has  been  decided  wrongly  by  precipitate  ut- 
terances of  those  who  never  undertook  to  search  below 
the  plausible  in  quest  of  the  real.  On  such  superficial 
arbitraments,  ready  but  not  as  real  as  they  were  rapid, 
have  been,  in  more  than  one  age  of  religious  history, 
based  some  of  Avhat  Rationalism  regarded  for  the  time  as 
its  great  rules  for  settling  what  the  Bible  is,  Avhat  man  is, 
and  what  God  is ;  where  sin  adheres,  and  whence  salva- 


176  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

tion  comes.  Writers,  like  Saisset  in  France,  and  Hase 
in  Germany,  have  united  in  the  complaint,  that  what  in 
theology  its  friends  claim  as  Rationalism  has  never  laid 
down  its  definitions,  precise  and  clear,  of  what  in  their 
judgment  is  the  full  prerogative  and  the  wise  scope  of 
human  reason  in  the  matters  of  religious  faith.  Consid- 
ering how  gravely  and  widely  the  assailants  of  orthodoxy 
have  dissented  among  themselves,  as  to  the  last  results  of 
their  own  rational  scrutiny  and  judgment,  it  seems  just 
occasion  of  regret,  that  the  processes  upon  which  those 
results  were  to  be  ascertained  have  not  been  calmly  and 
distinctly  indicated  from  the  very  commencement  of  the 
inquir3\  Could  man  make  his  own  Bible,  and  in  the 
energy  of  his  mental  endowments  cast  his  own  god,  pro- 
jecting, at  one  fling  of  the  intellect,  his  symmetric  deity, 
just  as  the  deft  hand  of  Aaron,  by  the  aid  of  molten 
metal,  brought  out  of  the  mould  the  golden  calf  that  the 
tribes  were  summoned  to  worship  as  the  planner  of 
their  exodus?  He  who  makes  out  of  his  own  reason 
his  Scripture  and  his  God  must  go  on  to  make,  as  best  he 
may,  his  own  heaven.  A  revelation  being  in  the  world ; 
the  claim  being  here  before  our  own  eyes,  that  our  Maker 
has  told  us  of  his  own  nature  and  will,  and  of  our  duties 
and  destinies,  it  is  but  reasonable  and  equitable  that  we 
give  him  i)atient,  reverent  hearing  before  we  proceed  to 
judge. 
Let  us,  then,  ask  hastily  : 

I.  What  are  the  rights  of  reason  in  matters  of  religious 
faith  ? 

II.  What  are  the  wrongs  which  those  opposed  to  Ra- 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  177 

tionalism  complain  of  this  system  as  having  inflicted  by 
a  perverse  use  of  the  name  of  the  reasonable  ? 

III.  Then  let  us  inquire  how  far  the  Baptists  have,  per- 
sonally or  in  large  bodies,  aided  the  growth  of  Rational- 
ism; and 

IV.  How  far  they  have,  as  a  denomination,  been  its 
eager  and  not  inefiicient  antagonists. 

I.  It  is  unquestionably  the  province  of  reason  to  ex- 
amine Intelligently  and  reverently  the  document  profess- 
ing to  come  from  a  Divine  Author,  and  to  reveal  an  in- 
visible world  with  its  eternal  retributions.  The  volume 
of  Scripture  is  made  up  of  several  distinct  treatises,  th.'> 
Avorks  of  men  far  remote  in  age,  and  very  varied  in  the 
character  of  the  surroundings  that  would  naturally  in- 
fluence them.  The  histories  it  contains  are  to  be  tested 
"with  the  aid  and  the  collation  of  other  contemporaneous 
narrations,  where  such  may  be  found. 

The  miracles  on  the  outer  material  world  and  on  the 
inner  world  of  man's  soul  and  character  are  not  to  be 
dismissed  as  at  once  incredible.  Such  was  in  Germany  a 
very  recent  and  general  assumption,  but  it  is  certainly 
not  reasonable ;  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  not  himself  a 
believer,  yet  allows  that  if  there  be  admitted  the  exist- 
ence of  a  personal  God,  there  is  nothing  to  be  regarded 
as  extravagant  in  the  claim,  that  he  has  wrought  wonders 
to  authenticate  his  message.  Some  fulfilments  of  proph- 
ecy are,  again,  of  the  nature  of  miracles  of  a  high  order, 
and  of  a  more  diffusive  evidence  than  wonders  wrought 
in  sea  or  sky  or  earth.     Ascertain  the  early  date  of  the 

prediction — often  when  uttered  of  unlikely  fulfilment— 

M 


178  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTOKY. 

and  then  see,  centuries  after  that  date,  by  parties  and 
influences  not  interested  in  the  sustaining  of  the  record, 
tb.e  fulfihnent  of  the  ancient  oracle,  and  here  is  a  miracle 
of  a  very  high  order,  as  impartial  reason  must  allow. 
The  dispersion  of  the  Jews  for  so  many  centuries,  with- 
out their  national  absorption,  is  among  such  portentous 
authentications  that  the  book  making  the  pledge  of  their 
being  scattered  among  the  nations,  yet  not  intermingled 
Avith  the  nations,  came  from  a  divine  foresight.  Then, 
again,  reason  has  a  right  to  ponder,  and  is  bound  in 
equity  to  weigh  dispassionately,  the  moral  contents  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  holiness  of  the  God  there  portrayed,  the 
character  of  the  Saviour— Son  of  the  Father,  and  Incar- 
nation and  Presentation  of  True  Godhead — in  his  dis- 
courses, acts,  and  sufferings,  in  his  influence  as  long 
expected  in  type  and  prophecy,  his  subsequent  influence 
on  church  and  world,  in  ordinances  and  conversions,  and 
effusions  of  the  Spirit.  These  are  moral  traits  of  the 
book,  putting  it  apart  from  all  the  sacred  books  of  other 
religions. 

The  mode  in  Avhich  it  shows  the  reader's  own  heart, 
and  as  a  mirror  flashes  back  the  moral  judgment  of  his 
own  unbribed  conscience,  is  another  j^ersonal  appeal  to 
the  intellect  no  less  than  the  heart.  The  book,  as  Cole- 
ridge says,  "  meets  me ;"  it  finds  the  wanderer,  as  the 
straying  sheep  was  clutched  by  the  Good  Shepherd ;  it 
startles  the  ofi'ender,  as  Ahab  was  shocked  when  he  turned 
to  Elijah  with  the  cry,  "  Hast  thou  found  me,  0  my 
enemy?"  When  Rochester,  after  a  life  of  profligacy  in 
the  court  of  one  of  the  worst  of  English  kings — a  profli- 


IIATIONALISM   AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  179 

gate  before,  and  hardened  by  skepticism — was  on  his 
deathbed,  he  was  brought  to  read  the  volume,  and  ex- 
claimed to  his  Christian  friend,  "The  only  argument 
against  the  book  is  a  man's  own  bad  life;"  and  the  frank 
confession  was  followed  by  a  deep  penitence.  In  this 
case  we  have  the  attestation  of  Eeason ;  when  the  glare 
of  the  torches  of  Vanity  and  Fashion  has  died  out,  and 
the  masks  of  interest  and  passion  have  dropped  off  from 
Error  and  Vice,  the  pages,  with  the  light  of  conscience 
and  eternity  beaming  upon  them,  flash  back  the  rays  of 
their  own  divine  origin. 

The  book,  again,  appeals  to  the  reader  to  obey  what  he 
sees  to  be  true  if  he  would  be  led  onward  to  fresh  truth. 
"  If  any  man  Avill  do  his  [my  Father's]  will,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,"  said  Christ.  A  loyal  towardness 
is  the  requisite  temper  for  a  happy  issue  of  the  examina- 
tion. A  man  must,  in  ordinary  fairness  and  reason,  be 
willing  to  yield  this  in  the  course  of  his  scrutiny.  He 
must  be  willing  to  relinquish  the  idols  there  detected,  and 
to  follow  the  clues  there  manifested. 

Now,  in  all  these  modes,  as  well  as  in  exercising  a 
judicious  criticism  on  the  allusions  and  imagery  of  the 
volume,  reason  has  its  legitimate  sway  and  prerogatives. 
The  Bible  is  a  letter  from  an  absent  Parent.  The  genuine- 
ness of  an  epistle  received  by  a  son  in  the  city  from  a 
beloved  mother,  it  may  be  in  the  far  rural  home,  is  evi- 
denced in  part  1)y  the  postage-stamp  that  it  bears,  and  by 
the  livery  and  known  occupation  of  the  postman  who 
delivers  it  into  the  eager  hands  of  the  recipient;  and  for 
such  evidence  from  the  postman,  even  if  the  letter  itself 


180  LECTUllES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

comes  in  the  handwriting  of  some  neighbor  who  corre- 
sponds in  behalf. of  the  mother,  now  perchance  on  her 
sick-bed,  and  that  hand  be  to  the  son  an  unknown  one, 
the  youth  who  takes  the  letter  and  breaks  the  seal  may 
be  grateful.  Keason  is  the  postman  delivering  us  God's 
message  from  the  far  skies.  But  supposing  that,  after  the 
letter-carrier  has  delivered  the  epistle  to  its  owner's  keep- 
ing, he  should  stop  and  suggest  his  criticisms  on  the  good 
mother's  mode  of  uttering  her  thoughts,  and  should  go 
on  to  say,  that  if  the  letter  was  in  the  venerable  woman's 
own  hand,  the  spelling  of  ^^ honour''^  with  a  "m"  was  anti- 
quated, and  not  sustainable  according  to  the  authority  of 
Webster,  and  that  the  good  lady  took  more  of  her  paper 
for  maternal  admonitions  than  in  his  judgment  was  de- 
sirable, Avould  not  the  recipient  of  such  critical  emenda- 
tions be  rather  annoyed?  Would  it  not  be  quite  natural 
if  he  should  hint  gently,  that,  gratified  as  the  reader  of 
the  letter  might  be  with  the  postman's  services  in  au- 
thenticating the  country  postmark  and  the  hour  of  the 
city  receipt,  it  was  scarce  desirable  that  his  valuable  time 
should  be  wasted  in  further  remarks  on  what  lay  more 
between  the  mother  and  her  Benjamin?  So,  if  God  has 
promised  his  Spirit  to  the  asker,  the  perennial  intercourse 
of  the  Heavenly  and  Divine  Parent  with  the  dependent 
and  filial  soul  is  a  matter  which  Reason  should  leave  to 
the  handling  of  the  God  who  has  undertaken  it.  The 
letter-carrier  should  attend  merely  to  his  proper  duty, 
and  should  not  affect  to  encroach,  and  to  improve  upon 
the  teachings  of  the  Parent. 

There  will  be,  as  the  old  Christians  were  fond  of  re- 


EATIONALISM   AND   OUii   CHUECHES.  181 

marking,  much  that  may  he  above  reason,  that  yet  is  not 
against  reason ;  great  facts  and  truths,  that  the  unaided 
intellect  could  not  have  discovered  for  itself.  Yet  some 
of  these  truths,  thus  requiring  superior  wisdom  for  their 
manifestation,  are,  when  disclosed,  sustained  by  their 
own  intrinsic  beauty  and  majesty.  What,  again,  we  do 
not  fully  comprehend,  we  may  really  and  reasonably  ap- 
prehend. The  man  who  has  never  trode  the  shore  of 
China,  and  never  expects  to,  may  yet  have  full  confi- 
dence that  there  is  such  a  land,  from  various  reports  and 
testimony.  If  his  brother  sail  thither  and  be  a  mission- 
ary there,  both  brothers  hold  the  truth ;  but  the  one 
never  visiting  apprehends  the  nature  of  the  country, 
whilst  the  other  residing  there  comprehends  it.  There 
are,  again,  as  even  reason  ma}^  perceive,  truths  that,  par- 
tially discerned,  cannot  in  this  existence  be  fully  mas- 
tered. Here  we  "know  in  part."  Mysteries  belong  not 
to  religion  only,  but  to  science  as  well;  not  merely  to 
the  things  of  the  soul,  but  to  the  very  life  of  the  body. 
No  man  of  us  has  seen  his  own  heart  or  his  own  brain. 
There  are  portions  of  the  human  frame,  carried  by  indi- 
vidual men  for  centuries,  of  which  medical  science  can 
yet  scarce  tell  the  properties  and  purposes.  We  are  a 
wonder,  a  mystery,  to  ourselves.  Life  is  a  mystery.  The 
light  by  which  we  see  is  a  mystery.  Thought  itself  is  a 
mystery.  To  object  to  the  existence  of  mysteries  in  God's 
book  and  in  his  nature  and  in  his  providence ;  to  make 
them  as  a  cause  of  questioning  his  volume  or  his  own 
character  and  rights,  is  not  to  act  a  reasonable  part.     It 

is  to  make  our  littleness  an  argument  against  the  great- 
16 


182  LECTURES  OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ness  of  the  God  that  formed  and  feeds  and  would  fain 
bless  us. 

II.  Now,  as  against  the  system  that  its  admirers  have 
installed,  under  the  name  of  Rationalism,  to  judge  and 
supersede  the  Bible,  the  churches  of  Christ  have  cause 
to  object  that  its  criticisms  have  no  present  harmony,  and 
result  in  no  practical  unison.  If,  indeed,  the  new  and 
adverse  power  be  the  outbreak  of  Reason  as  against  Faith, 
it  should  by  this  date  have  settled  upon  some  tribunal  in 
which  the  overruling  power  that  so  abridges  and  re- 
trenches, and  even  rejects.  Revelation  is  made  to  centre, 
and  fix  its  permanent  seat.  Is  this  the  judgment  of  the 
thinker,  each  man  for  himself,  apart  from  his  fellows?  or 
is  it  the  common  sense  of  the  great  masses,  apart  from  the 
prejudices  of  schools  and  the  dogmas  of  churches  ?  or  is 
it  the  more  cultured  and  more  richly-stored  mind  of  some 
philosopher,  living  apart  and  thinking  profoundly  and 
seeing  clearly,  when  others  are  but  purblind,  or  discern 
with  disturbed  vision?  The  faith  of  the  Nazarene  has 
had  some  of  the  loftiest  intellects  of  the  race  in  the  ranks 
of  its  loyal,  its  lowly  adherents.  There  is  yet  no  response 
as  to  the  great  Delphi,  whence  the  oracles  of  this  over- 
ruling Reason  are  to  be  proclaimed.  The  masses  are  not 
agreed ;  the  schools  jangle ;  the  philosophers  themselves 
change,  collide,  and  mutuall}^  blaspheme. 

But  many  seem  to  have  forgotten  the  obvious  facts,  and 
feel  that  the  popular  flings  against  right  and  truth  are  to 
be  accepted  as  decisive  against  the  existence  of  such  right 
and  revelation,  and  as  to  the  presence  of  such  truth  in 
the  old  prophet  and  apostle.     Let  us,  then,  ask  if  the  ob- 


RATIONALISM    AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  183 

jectors  are  greater,  intellectually  and  morally,  than  the 
receivers.  Take  up  the  Thoughts  of  Pascal,  as  commented 
upon  by  Voltaire  and  Condorcet.  Brilliant  and  clear  as 
are  these  critics,  Avho  are  sometimes  scoffers  rather  than 
critics,  we  judge  that  his  must  be  a  "svarped  and  blinded 
mind  who,  in  reading  the  text  and  the  margin,  does  not 
feel  and  docs  not  own  that  the  Christian  philosopher,  in 
force  of  thought,  in  tone  of  feeling,  and  in  high  purpose, 
is  immeasurably  the  superior  of  the  two  ske^jtics  who  sit 
upon  the  skirts  of  that  Christian's  robe.  The  tone  of  Vol- 
taire at  least,  reminds  one  of  what  might  be  the  grimaces 
of  a  showman's  ape  who  had  lighted  upon  the  diary  and 
medicine-chest  of  some  Howard,  dead  in  the  forest,  and 
who  sputtered  indignantly  over  the  bitterness  of  the 
drugs  which,  in  the  hands  of  their  beneficent  OAvner,  were 
meant  to  quell  pain  and  to  avert  death,  but  which,  to  the 
exasperated  finder,  were  an  utter  nullity  and  a  cruel  dis- 
appointment. 

There  is  much  of  a  disposition  in  every  age  to  idolize 
the  present,  as  outranking  the  past,  and  as  containing  all 
the  hopes  of  the  future.  As  travel  becomes  more  rapid 
and  free ;  and  as  translations,  rendering  the  literary  and 
religious  treatises  of  one  tongue  into  another  tongue, 
spoken,  it  may  be,  on  the  other  side  of  the  planet,  are 
bringing  the  long-severed  into  close  and  easy  collation,  it 
is  very  natural  to  form  the  thought  that  all  the  several 
religions  are  to  be  levelled  to  the  same  rank  of  the  ques- 
tionable and  mutually  irreconcilable,  and  that  they  must 
be,  all  and  altogether,  abandoned.  Burke,  in  his  day, 
spoke  of  Englishmen  who  had  dropped  the  articles  of  creed 


184  LECTUEES    OX    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

and  decalogue  in  the  sea  which  they  traversed  as,  round- 
ing the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  they  sought  a  new  home  in 
heathen  India.  We  do  not  know  that  the  process  was  a 
reasonahle  one,  or  the  results  haj^py  and  enviahle. 

So  the  criticism  and  literature  of  the  age  are  j^rone  to 
affect  the  popular,  and  secure  this  end  often  by  flattering 
the  very  weaknesses  of  the  age.  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  in  one 
of  his  books,  speaks  of  a  British  nobleman  whose  wonder 
was  that  the  weakest  of  his  sons  was  the  most  generally 
liked.  The  sentiment  was  far  earlier  than  the  days  when 
Helps  notes  it.  Charles  II.,  the  shrewd  but  the  reckless 
and  merry  king,  blamed  the  men  of  the  Established 
Church  for  not  gathering  back  the  Dissenters.  One  of 
liis  chaplains,  a  very  weak  man,  but  a  busy  one,  had 
been  appointed  by  his  king  to  a  rectory  wdiere  he  had, 
by  going  among  his  dissenting  parishioners,  brought 
them  all  to  the  church.  The  sovereign  said  it  seemed 
to  him  unaccountable,  but  that  "  the  man  had  put  his 
nonsense  to  their  nonsense,"  and  it  had  succeeded.  In 
reward  for  his  English  success,  the  king  made  him  bishoj) 
of  an  Irish  see,  as  Burnet  tells  it.  But  the  popularity  of 
some  of  the  objectors  to  the  Bible  is  accounted  for  on  this 
very  principle.  It  is  weakness  sympathizing  with  and 
flattering  weakness.  Yet  to  some  the  currency  of  such 
objections  seems  explicable  only  on  the  j)rinciple  of  their 
justice  and  unimpeachable  rightfulness.  The  Rational- 
ism of  Germany,  at  an  age  of  her  religious  history  not 
very  long  gone,  was  just  of  this  class.  Men  took  up  and 
gave  back — took  up  from  the  mouth  and  gave  back  to 
the  ears  of  the  people  their  flimsiest  and  their  boldest 


RATIONALISM    AND   OUU   CHURCHES.  185 

objections.  For  a  time  the  hurricane  seemed  irresistible. 
But  it  went  by,  and  the  immortahty  of  its  literary  organs 
went  down  as  rapidly  as  it  rose.  Look  at  the  influence 
wielded  by  the  great  EncyclopsecUa  of  Diderot.  Where 
is  it  now  ?  Look  at  the  power  of  Nicolai  in  German  lit- 
erature. Who  now,  of  ordinary  German  readers,  knows 
his  time  and  position  ? 

And  yet,  under  the  influence  of  such  objections  and 
leaders,  popular,  shallow,  plausible,  and  headstrong,  doc- 
trine after  doctrine  was  dropped  from  the  creed,  book 
after  book  was  shoved  out  of  the  Canon.  A  Christ, 
without  prophecies  to  herald  him,  or  miracles  to  attend 
him,  was  discrowned  and  undeified.  First  he  wa&  sage, 
then  fanatic,  then  schemer,  then  myth.  Revealed  relig- 
ion became  natural  religion ;  and  natural  religion  became 
a  particolored  deism,  or  a  blank,  a  dark, atheism.  As  said 
one  of  their  homely  sages,  Matthias  Claudius,  men  in 
their  wisdom  undertook  to  require  that  the  sun  in  the 
heavens  should  be  set  back,  or  urged  forward,  to  bring  the 
orb  of  day  into  due  and  loyal  subordination  to  their  own 
revered  wooden  dock,  that  ticked  over  the  kitchen  chim- 
ney. God  was  to  mend  himself  to  suit  man ;  or,  faihng, 
he  was  insolently  warned  to  take  the  consequences. 

A  favorite  plea  for  it  all  was  that  only  by  such  rational 
accommodations  of  the  old  and  strict  orthodoxy  could 
the  masses  be  propitiated  and  saved  from  utter  irreligion. 
The  sceptic  would  thus  be  saved  to  the  church;  and  the 
church  would  thus  be  preserved  by  tlie  tolerance,  if  not 
in  the  full  confidence,  of  the  nation.  The  result  was  in 
little  accordance  with  the  prediction.     Instead  of  winning 

16* 


186  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

the  scoffers,  they  were  incensed  and  scandalized  at  such 
temporizing  with  what  claimed  to  be  divine  oracles. 
Lessing,  a  man  of  unquestioned  genius,  but  himself 
unhappily  not  a  Christian,  very  distinctly  and  almost 
fiercely  wrote  of  the  new  Rationalists  as  bringing  in  a 
system  infinitely  less  wdse  and  harmonious  and  worthy  of 
respect  than  the  old  orthodoxy.  See,  in  our  own  days, 
the  language  of  Morley  *  in  his  life  of  Voltaire,  himself 
in  seeming  sympathy  with  his  subject,  when  he  refers  to  a 
peculiarity  of  our  own  times :  "  The  strange  and  sinister 
methods  of  assault  upon  religion,  Avhich  we  of  a  later  day 
watch  with  wondering  eyes,  and  which  consist  in  wearing 
the  shield  and  device  of  a  faith,  and  industriously  shout- 
ing the  cry  of  a  church,  the  more  effectually  to  reduce  the 
faith  to  a  vague  futility,  and  its  outward  ordering  to  a 
piece  of  ingeniously-reticulated  pretence." 

Such  is  the  estimate  that  infidelity,  not  in  this  matter' 
biased  in  favor  of  our  gospel,  puts  upon  the  methods  of 
popularizing  the  gospel  in  order  to  save  it. 

If  it  does  not  satisfy  the  doubters  who  are  to  be  placated, 
it  fails — which  is  still  more  strange — to  satisfy  the  very 
authors  of  these  vaunted  amendments  when  the}^  get 
older  and  nearer  the  edge  of  this  brief  mortal  life.'  Sem- 
ler,  the  father  of  modern  German  Rationalism,  is  not  satis- 
fied in  his  old  age  with  the  results  of  his  own  work. 
Paulus  comes  after  him,  a  Rationalist  of  another  school, 
and  a  great  Orientalist.  But  his  old  age  is  one  of  discon- 
tent. Strauss,  still  another  who  had  aided  to  discredit 
and  ridicule  the  acknowledged  evasions  of  miracles  in 
*LiJe  of  VoUuire,  N.  Y.,  1872,  p.  8. 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR  CHURCHES.  187 

Paulus,  has  his  Lives  of  Christ;  writes  and  alters;  and 
alters  and  rewrites ;  and  goes  off  tlie  stage  believing  in  no 
revelation,  and  losing  all  hope  of  a  personal  innnortality, 
yet  expecting  to  be  heeded  in  every  whirl  of  his  whiffling 
unbelief. 

But  God  took,  in  his  providence,  other  methods  of 
answering.  As  Tholuck  said,  "  the  thunders  of  the  battle- 
fields of  Leipsic  and  AVatorloo  rekindled  the  sparks  of 
religious  life  in  the  German  nation." 

III.  Now,  of  this  fearful'  course,  that  in  a  form  so  un- 
reasonable and  with  results  so  disastrous  has  labored  to 
amend  the  handiworks  of  God,  have  our  churches  had 
any  large  share  ?  The  younger  Socinus  settled  in  Poland, 
"fhere  w'as,  in  a  certain  portion  of  the  churches  there 
and  in  Hungary,  a  sort  of  intercourse  for  a  time  between 
Baptists  and  Unitarians.  Dudith,  a  Roman  Catholic 
bishop,  who  attended,  as  such,  the  celebrated  Council  of 
Trent,  and  delivered  two  discourses  there,  which  are  pre- 
served in  the  published  records  of  that  council,  became 
rather  Unitarian,  and  some  say  a  Baptist,  in  that  portion 
of  Europe.  The  fraternization  was,  however,  limited  in 
extent  and  temporary  in  duration.  So,  in  Holland,  when 
the  Remonstrants  or  Arminians  went  down  before  the 
predominant  power  of  the  Calvinists,  some  of  the  Remon- 
strants projected  a  coalition  Avith  the  Mennonites  of  that 
country,  as  a  numerous  and  a  popular  body.  Some  of 
those  Remonstrants  passed  over  to  Arianism,  and  there 
were  some  of  our  Mennonite  churches  which  also  imbibed 
the  same  influence.  So,  in  England,  the  General  Baptists, 
who  had  been,  though  Arminian  in  doctrine,  yet  evangel- 


188  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

ical  in  the  earlier  times  of  influence,  became  also  Arian. 
Wm.  Whiston  was  identified  with  them.  With  them,  too, 
sympathized,  Gale,  a  learned  writer  of  our  own  body,  of 
that  branch  of  it.  And  the  James  Foster  whom  Pope,  no 
very  facile  or  partial  critic,  has  consigned  to  immortality 
in  the  lines, 

"  Let  modest  Foster,  if  he  will,  excel 
Ten  Metropolitans  in  preaching  well," 

was  a  General  Baptist  and  an  Arian.  But  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Kationalism,  in  this  form  of  it,  the  General 
BajDtists  wilted  into  weakness,  and  wellnigh  into  extinc- 
tion, as  the  Mennonites  of  Holland,  under  the  like  curse, 
have  diminished  rapidly  in  numbers,  zeal,  and  influence. 

The  Particular — by  which  name  was  meant  the  Calvin- 
istic — Baptists  have  grown.  They  had,  in  the  days  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  Protectorate,  men  of  piety  and  some 
men  of  scholarship  among  their  pastors.  Bunyan  stands 
apart.  He  was  of  them.  In  later  days,  Gill — of  Avhom 
Toplady  the  churchman,  but  a  personal  friend,  said  that 
in  controversy  he  was  never  met  by  any  his  match — was, 
in  Rabbinical  learning  we  should  judge,  the  equal  of 
Lightfoot,  generally  held  the  greatest  of  Rabbinical  schol- 
ars among  English  theologians. 

When,  in  times  near  our  own,  God  stirred  up  an  illit- 
erate but  devout  man,  Dan  Taylor,  among  the  General 
Baptists,  to  protest  and  strive  against  this  dangerous  her- 
esy, his  New  Connection  began  to  thrive.  John  G.  Pike, 
not  long  dead,  and  the  author  of  works  reprinted  and 
valued  here,  was  one  of  the  preachers  in  this  new  body, 


TvATIOXALISJI    AND   OUR  CHURCHES.  189 

recalled  from  heres}^  and  thus  and  thenceforth  pervaded 
witli  a  new  life. 

When  one  of  the  missionaries  of  our  evangelical  breth- 
ren in  India,  originally  a  Baptist,  became  there  Unitarian, 
he  attempted  a  mission  to  be  sustained  by  fellow-Unita- 
rians in  England  and  America,  but  it  soon  withered  and 
perished, 

IV.  What  have  we  done,  let  us  lastly  inquire,  to  resist, 
under  God,  this  influence?  Our  churches  have  as  a 
whole,  neither  in  Switzerland,  Britain,  nor  in  this  coun- 
try, yielded  to  it,  but  stemmed,  and  often  most  vigor- 
ously, the  onflowing  tide  of  error.  Andrew  Fuller,  one 
of  our  writers,  destitute  of  classical  training,  but  a  man 
of  singular  acuteness  and  clearness  of  intellect,  and  with 
great  force  and  directness  of  utterance,  was  not  only  ef- 
fective against  infidelity  by  his  Gospel  its  Own  Witness, 
but  by  his  Calvinistic  and  Socinian  Systems  Compared,  he, 
a  mere  Shamgar,  as  it  might  seem,  entering  the  battle- 
field with  but  an  ox-goad  against  the  mailed  errorists  of 
his  island,  produced  an  impression  that  some  learned 
Unitarians  sought,  but  very  unsuccessfully,  to  counteract. 

In  Boston,  at  the  time  when  all  the  churches  founded 
by  the  Puritan  Congregational  Fathers  had,  with  one  ex- 
ception, gone  over  to  this  error,  our  people  stood  firm, 
and  their  services  to  the  cause  of  evangelical  truth  in  that 
respect  have  been,  by  Poedobaptist  brethren,  more  than 
once  acknowledged. 

One  of  the  causes  of  the  growth  of  Rationalism  has 
been  found  by  German  Christians  in  the  ashes  of  a  dead 
orthodoxy.     Now,  our  own  churches  seem  in  one  respect 


190  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

less  liable  to  this  evil  than  those  having  an  infant  mem- 
bership. The  last  inherit  a  creed  sometimes  without  an 
experience.  Our  polity,  if  faithfully  administered  by 
si)iritual  churches  and  pastors,  demands  inexorably,  fnv 
as  human  judgment  can  scan  it  or  secure  it,  that  there 
shall  be  a  personal  experience  along  with  the  inherited 
creed.  Our  Mennonite  brethren  in  Holland  seem  to  some 
of  us,  observers  from  abroad,  to  have  succumbed  more 
readily  to  this  influence  of  a  traditional  hereditary  ortho- 
doxy, not  vitalized  by  personal  conversion  in  their  new 
membership,  because,  in  some  of  them  at  least,  the  prac- 
tice had  prevailed  of  letting  in  the  young  at  a  certain  age 
to  membership,  by  a  sort  of  confirmation,  as  in  the  Epis- 
copal Church  it  would  be  called,  Avithout  rigid  exaction 
of  the  evidence  of  personal  piety  on  the  arrival  of  the 
young  at  such  development  of  thought  and  mind  as 
might  make  their  adherence  intelligent,  whether  or  not 
it  were  cordial,  a  matter  of  the  brain,  if  not  of  the 
heart. 

The  missions  to  which  God  has  stirred  up  our  churches 
have  reacted  visibly  and  vividly  on  their  own  home-life. 
That  their  form  of  polity  is  not  the  main  cause  of  the 
failure  in  Holland  and  in  the  General  Baptists  of  Britain, 
to  maintain  the  old  evangelical  faith,  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  the  Presbyterians  of  England  largel}^, 
and  to  some  extent  those  of  Scotland  also,  became  in- 
volved in  the  same  drift  toward  a  denial  of  the  old  doc- 
trines of  the  trinity,  atonement,  inspiration  of  the  Bible, 
and  justification  by  faith.  The  church  of  Matthew  Henry 
■ — himself  so  devout,  and  the  son  of  the  holy  Philip  Hen- 


RATIONALISM    AND   OUK  CHURCHES.  101 

ry — went  over  to  Arianism.  And  in  the  great  church  of 
Scothind,  the  bulwark,  as  it  miglit  have  been  expected  to 
prove,  of  sound  doctrine,  the  reign  of  Moderatisni  carried 
over  numbers  of  its  most  learned  and  its  most  intellectual 
pastors  and  writers  to  principles  not  very  distinguishable 
from  those  of  German  Rationalism.  In  the  Presbyterian 
Cburch  of  the  North  of  Ireland,  it  also  prevailed.  God 
raised  uj)  A\'itherspoon,  by  his  Ecclesiastical  Characteristics. 
to  witness  against  the  Scottish  defection.  Bishop  Warbur- 
ton,  who  was  far  from  full  reception  of  the  evangelical  sys- 
tem, yet  felicitated  "Witherspoon  on  the  appearance  of  that 
work,  and  declared  that  there  was  a  class  in  the  English  Es- 
tablished Church  to  whom  the  charges  were  equally  appli- 
cable. In  Ireland,  God  raised  up  Dr.  Cooke  to  denounce 
the  error  and  all  coalition  with  it,  and  he  led  the  healincr 
severance.     Our  own  Carson  partook  in  the  good  work. 

Upon  the  fall  of  the  first  Napoleon,  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  long  closed  against  British  Christians,  was  once 
more  opened  to  their  evangelizing  zeal.  Among  the  first 
to  enter  it  was  Robert  Haldane,  a  member  of  one  of  our 
own  churches.  His  earher  religious  history  had  been 
remarkable.  He  was  born  to  wealth,  and  a  near  relative 
to  the  British  admiral,  Lord  Duncan,  who  had  won  the 
battle  of  Camperdown.  "When  the  grace  of  God  met  and 
changed  him,  Haldane  had  sold  a  magnificent  home  and 
estate,  intending  with  the  proceeds  to  sustain  himself  and 
Greville  Ewing,  and  other  Pedobaptist  friends,  as  mission- 
aries in  the  possessions  of  the  British  East  India  Company. 
Notwithstanding  his  aristocratic  alliances,  the  jealousy 
of  that  Company  forbade  his  being  allowed  to  plant  that 


192  LECTURES    ON    EArTIST    HISTORY. 

Eastern  mission.  He  then  devoted  tlie  zeal  and  means, 
thus  barred  out  from  the  far  East,  to  lionie  evangelization 
in  Scotland.  He  and  his  brother,  once  in  command  of  a 
ship  sailing  to  India,  now  devoted  to  the  same  gospel, 
made  it,  under  God,  a  most  effective  enterj^rise.  But 
study  of  God's  word  made  both  these  brothers  Baptists. 

When  Robert,  the  elder  and  wealthier,  visited  Geneva, 
he  found  the  old  home  of  Calvin  given  over  to  a  predom- 
inant and  proscriptive  Rationalism.  The  good  Scotsman, 
not  master  of  the  French,  could  hold  but  cramped  and 
imperfect  conference  with  the  young  theological  students 
of  that  Unitarian  school,  whom  he  had  by  effort  gathered 
around  him.  But  God  gave  to  his  testimony,  as  attended 
with  the  Spirit's  energies,  the  awakening  and  conversion 
of  Gaussen  and  of  Merle  d'Aubigne,  the  historian  of  tlio 
Reformation.  How  large  the  field  of  influence  since 
traversed  by  the  new  laborers — not,  indeed,  denomination- 
ally with  us,  but  won  to  the  common  gospel  by  a  cham- 
pion of  our  own  denomination — we  cannot  pause  to 
remark. 

If,  in  an  earlier  generation,  Robert  Robinson  of  Cam- 
bridge, of  our  own  ministers,  under  the  influence  of 
Priestly  and  of  Lindsay,  swerved  from  the  old  foundations, 
and  deserted  the  faith  his  hymns,  sermons,  and  controver- 
sial labors  had  once  maintained,  the  mocking  tone  of  the 
convert  gave  umbrage  to  Priestly  himself;  and  neither 
the  church  over  which  he  had  long  presided,  nor  the 
more  brilliant  successor  who  filled  his  vacated  pulpit, 
Robert  Hall,  partook  in  the  secession.  Dyer,  the  learned 
but  eccentric  Greek  scholar,  who  wrote  Robinson's  life, 


EATIOXALISM    AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  193 

has  scarce!}''  made  the  memory  of  the  preacher  and 
student  one  to  awaken  an  infectious  admiration,  or  one  to 
win  new  recruits  for  the  standard  of  the  new  gospel. 

Chalmers  in  Scotland  was,  in  the  hands  of  the  Divine 
Providence,  an  instrument  to  discourage  Moderatism,  as 
it  was  called,  and  to  hearten  and  enlarge  the  evangelical 
party  until  it  became  a  majority.  But  the  action  of  the 
British  government  in  patronage  provoked  and  drove  out 
that  majority  to  create  a  separate  church — the  Free,  as  they 
called  it — and  one  eminently  vigorous  it  has  proved  itself, 
in  missions,  literature,  and  pastoral  work.  But  the  estab- 
lished Presbyterian  Church  left  behind,  on  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Free,  seems  threatened  with  a  grow^th  of  the  old 
Moderatism. 

One  of  their  own  members,  the  late  Norman  Macleod, 
regretted  the  effect  of  Rationalism,  as  he  found  it  in  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  of  Holland,  in  leaving 
many  pastorates  unfilled.  And  in  the  spirit  of  deference 
to  the  papal  portion  of  the  nation,  the  schoolbooks  of 
Holland,  as  Macleod  records,  may  no  longer  mention  the 
sufferings  of  the  nation  in  the  strifes  with  Alva,  Spain, 
and  Rome,  when  their  martyrs  and  our  own  Mennonite 
martyrs  were  burned,  drowaied,  flayed,  and  buried  by 
thousands.  It  is  one  of  the  strange,  yet  we  think  natural, 
results  of  a  large  infusion  of  Rationalistic  feeling  into  a 
nominaHy  Protestant  country,  that  its  churches  and  insti- 
tutions tend  rapidly  to  feed  Rome  with  new  converts. 

Bring  the  conscience  and  faith  of  the  churches  from  the 
One,  the  Spirit  of  God— Perfect  and  True,  and  the  Guard- 
ian of  truth— down  to  the  many,  be  they  Fathers,  synods, 
17  N 


194  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

writers,  or  preachers,  unci  the  result  is  to  unsettle  the 
foundations  and  to  divide  the  membership.  What  rests 
on  the  faith  of  the  many,  the  many  may  alter,  desert,  and 
denounce.  Principle  then  becomes  but  opinion,  and 
opinion  becomes  a  matter  of  traffic  and  mutual  barter. 
One  surrenders  this,  and  another  renounces  that;  and 
both  have,  for  the  God-given  and  the  God-witnessed,  re- 
ceived in  exchanged  the  veneerings  of  man  and  the  refine- 
ments of  fashion.  The  opinions  clash,  and  man's  reason 
aspires  to  supplant  what  God  seems,  in  this  negligence  of 
his  word  and  Spirit — seems,  we  say — to  have  left  unpro- 
vided for.  The  result  is  that  the  fancies  of  earth  soon  re- 
place the  oracles  of  heaven.  As  in  the  second  of  Bun- 
yan's  great  allegories,  the  Holy  War,  the  Lord  Secretary 
of  Mansoul,  the  Divine  Spirit — to  whom  Christ  bequeathed 
the  care  of  his  church  and  the  continuous  vitality  of  his 
ministry,  his  ordinances,  and  his  membership — slighted, 
neglected,  grieved,  withdraws  the  evidences  of  his  presence. 
It  is,  to  the  spirituality  of  the  Christian  church,  what 
blood-poison  is  to  the  bodily  frame  of  the  individual  man. 
The  whole  activity  of  religion  is  palsied ;  the  currents  of 
religious  zeal  and  hope  and  love  flow  languidly,  or  stag- 
nate utterly.  The  Paraclete  will  not  be  dispensed  with 
by  any  arrangements  of  human  wisdom,  art,  or  eloquence. 
He  is  the  Author  of  the  written  oracles  and  the  Feeder  of 
the  living  ministry ;  and  when  duly  sought,  there  is  no 
potency  in  all  the  resistance  of  earth,  or  all  the  machina- 
tions of  hell,  to  foil  his  wisdom,  or  neutralize  his  might, 
and  turn  back  his  pledged  and  irresistible. help.  He  waits 
to  be  iiiquired  of,  and  the  prayers  of  which  Rationalism 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR  CHURCHES.  195 

disputes  the  worth,  and  to  which  skepticism  denies  any 
relevancy  or  any  cogency,  he  comes  down  to  answer.  The 
concerts  of  prayer,  which  Scotland  suggested,  and  New 
England,  by  Jonathan  Edwards  adopted,  and  England 
by  Andrew  Fuller  and  others  planted  there,  were 
appeals  to  this  Great  Agent;  and  the  whole  story  of 
the  translations  and  conversions  and  martyrdoms  and 
harvestings  of  the  foreign  mission  field,  in  continents  and 
islands,  is  but  one  simple  suggestion  to  the  churches  that 
the  Divine  Helper,  one  and  unchanging,  is  true  to  his 
word,  and  is  sufficient  for  his  work. 

Far  as  our  churches  invoke  and  honor  him,  he  will 
meet  their  every  draft.  The  faith  at  which  the  world 
scoffs,  is  yet  the  one  secret  principle  over  which  Heaven 
bends  approvingly,  and  before  which  Hell  quails  to  her 
innermost  depths,  transfixed  by  its  irresistible  energy. 

The  Spirit  in  the  Bible,  and  the  Spirit  in  the  collected 
church,  and  the  Spirit  in  the  regenerate  heart,  has  been 
clothed,  by  the  purpose  of  the  Father  and  the  promise 
of  the  Son,  with  all  needed  light  and  energy.  He  made 
the  material  world;  he  can  remake  the  moral  world. 
When  we  forget  dependence  and  fail  to  ask  and  win  the 
proffered  resources,  we  are  not  merely  liable  to  a  passive 
impoverishment,  but  we  become  active  in  a  positive  and 
terrible  depravation. 

As  Bunj^an  picturesquely  puts  it.  Doubting  Castle  may 
be  rebuilt,  and  Giant  Despair  recalled  to  a  new-fed  life. 
See  him  under  new  names,  the  lord  of  a  goodly  caravan- 
serai, the  home  of  all  opinions  and  all  nationalities.  He 
will  be  aided  by  the  Giant  Slaygood  and  the  Giant  Grim, 


196  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

whom  Bunyan  saw  slain,  but  who  can  be  restored  to  a 
new  activity  under  a  new  nomenclature.  The  fields  of 
speculation,  which  the  old  pilgrims  found  so  treacherous, 
will  be  planted  with  the  groves  of  a  new  Academe,  and  be 
decked  with  the  piazzas  to  the  porch  of  a  new  Stoicism. 
The  Lady  Diffidence,  which  in  Bunyan's  time  meant 
Habitual  Distrust,  and  in  Paul's  time  would  have  been 
called  Chronic  Unbelief,  will  be  queenly  occupant  of  the 
castle  as  the  Lady  Liberalism.  The  pilgrims,  who  will 
not  accept  the  livery  of  the  new  host,  will  serve,  having 
tenanted  the  dungeons  for  the  requisite  time,  to  garnish 
with  their  skeleton*,  scraped,  wired,  and  varnished,  the 
surgical  museums  of  the  great  pageant  of  the  new  faith 
that  has  replaced  God's  oracles  and  covenant  and  Mes- 
siah. Will  they  last?  Only  till  the  measure  of  the 
provocation  below  is  filled,  and  the  long-drawn  patience 
on  high  is  exhausted.     Then  the  end. 

If,  as  some  would  present  the  case,  the  Sovereign  of 
the  universe  is  really  the  "Unknowable,"  then,  it  seems 
to  follow,  that  as  respects  our  race  he  is  also  the  "  Untalk- 
able,"  and  whilst  we  are  condemned  to  grope  in  irremedi- 
able blindness,  it  is  a  predestined  necessity  of  his  nature 
that,  far  as  man  is  concerned,  he,  the  God,  is  voiceless 
and  dumb.  Occupying  a  throne  to  which  our  specula- 
tions even  cannot  soar,  much  less  our  prayers  climb,  it  is 
idle  to  believe  that  he  should  ever  descend  from  it  to 
attempt  for  our  guidance  a  revelation,  much  less  to  ac- 
cept, in  our  behalf,  an  incarnation  that  should  redeem, 
regenerate,  and  enfranchise  us.  Over  duty  rests  a  thick 
haze  never  to  be  pierced,  and  over  destiny  as  well.    The 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR   CHURCHES.  197 

old  gospel  of  our  fathers  bids  us  take,  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree  of  Golgotha,  a  God-sealed  pardon,  and  to  look  off 
beyond  the  grave  as  to  a  welcoming  home  on  high,  of 
cloudless  splendor  and  endless  felicity.  But  now  we  are 
to  unclutch  our  hold  on  this  cross ;  to  strip  off  the  wed- 
ding-garment of  his  own  everlasting  righteousness,  the 
free  gift  of  the  Ransomer;  and  to  dismiss  the  hope  of  re- 
union with  our  lost  friends,  so  many  and  so  excellent, 
who  leaned  on  this  faith,  and  died  expecting  to  greet  us 
there  before  his  throne. 

Certainties  so  blessed,  around  which  have  gathered  the 
memories  of  patriarchs  and  confessors  and  martyrs,  earth's 
noblest  tenantry  for  many  a  generation,  are  all  to  be  re- 
nounced. Instead,  we  are  to  solace  ourselves  with  the 
Great  Uncertainty,  and  to  look  steadily  as  we  can,  with 
sinking  hearts  and  dying  eyes,  to  the  "Grand  Perhaps." 
Paul  exulted  in  a  "  Yea  and  Amen "  gospel  of  a  Christ 
who  was  the  Truth,  the  very  Amen,  solemn  and  unques- 
tionable, immovable,  and  final.  But  Modern  Progress 
and  the  Pvationalism  of  the  age  cry,  "Yea  and  Nay." 
There  may  be  another  life,  and  a  Judge,  and  a  Helper, 
and  there  may  be  not.  Pillow,  poor  weakling  of  a  day, 
thy  head,  in  the  hour  of  its  last  woes  and  uttermost  needs, 
on  this  rocking  line.  May  Be  and  May  be  Not,  Perad- 
VENTURE  and  Who  Knows.  Renounce  the  dream  of  a 
Father's  home  on  high.  Strip  off  the  wedding-garment, 
for  the  marriage-supper  does  not  come  off;  the  Bride- 
groom is  dead.  He  who  was  proclaimed  as  "the  First 
and  the  Last"  has  been  effectively  snuffed  out  by  the 
"  Latest  News "  from  the  last  philosophy.  The  Church, 
17* 


198  LECTURES   OX    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  Bride  of  the  Lamb,  may  now  go  away  deploring 
into  a  perpetual  widowhood.  Fret  out  thy  little  day  of 
earthly  life  as  thou  best  canst,  and  in  the  hour  of  disso- 
lution shoot  out  thy  being  in  the  wild  forlorn  plaint, 
"Whitherward? — what?"  The  grave  has  no  outgate. 
Bible  and  Christ  and  God  are  evanished. 

Is  this  a  reasonable  conclusion,  a  sufficient  refuge,  a 
final  and  unquestionable  settlement?  No:  by  the  reason 
that  we  have ;  by  the  conscience  that  stirs  at  times  even 
within  the  most  obdurate ;  by  all  the  memories  of  the 
past;  by  all  the  omens  of  the  future, — it  is  not  rational, 
or  just,  or  wise,  or  true. 

Christ  is,  ever  blessed  be  his  name.  The  necessities  of 
all  peoj^le  required  his  advent.  The  consciences  even  of 
his  enemies  have  begrudgingly  admitted  his  majesty  and 
goodness.  The  Man  of  sorrows  is  neither  myth,  nor  blun- 
derer, nor  deceiver  of  the  people.  He  sways  the  centuries 
that  he  has  inherited.  He  sheds  forth,  even  at  this  hour, 
over  a  gainsaying  world,  the  Spirit  that  he  promised. 
From  myriads  on  myriads  of  saints,  calmed,  renewed, 
established,  gladdened,  and  sanctified  by  the  Spirit's 
present  Avorkings,  comes  back  the  thundering  acclaim, 
"  He  is  our  God ;  we  have  waited  for  him ;  our  fathers 
have  waited  for  him."  And  when  the  hour  strikes,  out 
of  the  rending  heaven,  and  across  the  emptied  graves  and 
the  shuddering  earth,  shall  come  down,  shall  shine  out, 
this — the  Desire  of  all  nations — the  Judge  of  all  the  gen- 
erations of  the  race,  Lord  of  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

Science  has  no  other  solution,  history  no  other  clue. 
The  heart  and  the  reason  and  the  craving  imagination 


RATIONALISM   AND   OUR  CHURCHES.  199 

sink  adoring  before  him,  the  very  Truth,  the  only  Life, 
the  Everlasting  God,  naught  beyond  him,  naught  beside 
him ;  and  his  people  shall  be  for  ever  with  him,  content 
with  his  fulness,  and  radiant  in  the  reflection  of  his  holi- 
ness, unsullied  and  eternal. 


VIII. 

THE  BAPTISTS 

A^T>  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 


THE  BAPTISTS 

AND  EELIGIOUS  LIBEETT. 


The  late  Robert  Southey,  in  his  closing  years  a  staunch 
churchman,  and  with  no  small  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical 
histor}'-,  and  whose  biography  of  Wesley  our  Methodist 
brethren,  notwithstanding  some  of  the  writer's  prejudices, 
have  been  compelled  to  adopt  and  reprint  as  the  best  lit- 
erary portraiture  of  their  reverend  founder,  has  spoken 
strongly  of  another  worthy,  who,  though  once  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Establishment,  left  its  precincts  and  expended 
his  energies  on  the  outside  of  its  fellowship.  Roger  Wil- 
liams was,  in  Southey's  estimate,  "the  best  and  greatest 
of  the  Welshmen,"  and  he  pronounced  him  deserving  of 
the  honors  that  have  been  intercepted  by  William  Penn.* 
His  allusion  is  to  the  influence  in  favor  of  a  diffused  re- 
ligious freedom.  Voltaire,  whose  power  in  the  literary 
world  was  once  almost  despotic,  has  given  to  the  founder 
of  Pennsylvania  a  high  place  as  establishing  toleration 
among  the  first  principles  of  government.  In  pages  which 
Southey  was  more  deliberate  in  preparing,  in  an  article  con- 
tributed to  the  Quarterly  Review,'f  he  spoke  of  Williams  as 

*  Selections  from  Lett,  of  Southey,  by  Warter  (Lond.,  1856),  I.  390  I. 

t  October,  1813. 

203 


204  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

the  one  who  ''began  the  first  civil  government  upon  earth 
that  gave  equal  liberty  of  conscience,"  and  describes  him 
as  "  one  of  the  best  men  who  ever  set  foot  upon  the  New 
World,  a  man  of  genius  and  of  virtue."  Archbishop 
Whately,  a  churchman  also,  speaks  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
as  having  compelled  the  ever-venerable  Roger  Williams, 
the  great  champion  of  toleration,  to  fly  from  them  to 
Rhode  Island,  where  he  founded  a  colony  on  his  own 
truly  Christian  system.* 

The  cause  of  religious  freedom  is  now  far  in  advance  of 
its  position  in  the  days  of  American  colonization.  Vari- 
ous influences  have  contributed  in  co-operation,  or  in 
mutual  counteraction,  to  bring  about  this  enhancement 
of  honor  for  the  advocates  of  enfranchised  religion  alike 
from  the  control  and  from  the  endowment  of  the  state. 
In  our  own  times,  an  illustrious  statesman  of  Italy,  not 
long  gone,  had  it  as  the  great  watchword  of  his  policy — 
Count  Cavour  it  was — "A  free  church  in  a  free  state." 
The  church  dominant  and  the  state  its  liege  vassal  had 
been  for  centuries  the  law  of  pontifical  rule  and  the  first 
term  in  Roman  Catholic  loyalty.  Cavour's  study  of  Brit- 
ish literature  and  institutions  had  made  his  views  what 
they  were.  The  kingdom  from  which  he  derived  these 
principles  has  not  yet  ventured  fully  to  conform  its  own 
institutions  to  this  great  scheme.  Yet  few  now  venture 
to  impugn  in  English  literature  the  wisdom  of  a  larger 
religious  toleration. 

Who  inaugurated  the  change?  has  been  a  question  va- 
riously answered.  Some  point  to  the  French  chancellor, 
*  An7wtationi^  to  Bacon's  Ff!says.     Essay  V. :  Of  Adversity. 


THE    BAPTISTS    AND    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY.  205 

L'Hopital;  others,  to  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  Utopia. 
But  whatever  the  theory  of  his  romance,  the  great  Eng- 
lishman, in  practice,  held  to  the  bringing  of  heretics  to 
death,  and  is  said  to  have  sanctioned  personally  the  use 
of  torture.  Bodin,  a  great  French  jurist,  was  said  to 
teach  similar  principles ;  but  they  were  attributed  to  his 
having  Jewish  blood,  which  caused  him  to  lean  to  the 
side  of  the  proscribed,  and  naught  appears  of  his  having 
been  able  to  give  any  practical  application  to  the  princi- 
ples. His  own  views  on  religion  were  supposed  skeptical ; 
and  lessons  from  such  a  source  would  have  less  efficacy. 
In  later  days,  Jeremy  Taylor,  when  the  Episcopal  Church 
lay  under  the  cloud  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Pro- 
tectorate, Avas  in  favor  of  the  liberty  of  prophesying ;  but 
when  power  was  regained  by  the  bishops  of  the  British 
Church,  no  trace  is  found  of  the  good  prelate's  aiming  to 
give  efficacy  to  these  the  lessons  of  the  day  of  the  church's 
adversity.  Locke  was  on  the  side  of  religious  freedom, 
but  he  had  not  the  honor  of  embodying  the  principle  in 
state  constitutions. 

Yet  English  Protestantism,  in  her  martyr  age  under 
Mary  the  bloody;  and  English  Puritanism,  in  her  long 
days  of  suffering;  and  Scotch  Presbyterianism,  in  the 
days  of  the  Covenanters'  worship  on  the  moors  and  suffer- 
ings on  the  gibbet, — all  tended  toward  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  a  principle,  which  no  one  of  these  great  schools 
was  able  fully  to  enunciate,  or  willing,  when  in  power,  sys- 
tematically to  pursue.  The  wise  man  declares,  that  God, 
in  his  providence,  alternating  for  our  race  prosperity  and 
adversity,  has  set  "the  one  over  against  the  other,  to  the 

18 


206  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

end  that  man  might  find  nothing  after  him,"*  or,  in  other 
words,  when  in  prosperity  be  compelled  to  acknowledge 
indebtedness  to  God  as  its  bounteous  Sender,  and  Himself 
its  indispensable  complement,  and  in  the  season  of  gloom 
and  trial  to  bow  submissively  and  penitently  to  God  as 
its  righteous  Dispenser  and  Himself  its  only  adequate 
solace,  thus  never  wafted  above  dependence  on  the 
Highest,  and  never  sunk  beyond  relief  at  the  hand  of  the 
Mightiest ;  and  so  shut  up  to  a  perpetual  trust  and  an 
indefeasible  sonship  and  pupilage.  So,  too,  has  it  been 
in  the  history  of  God's  churches :  we  find  the  schools  of 
the  wisest  and  best  continually  displaying  their  incom- 
petency, and  driven  back  from  themselves  on  the  conduct 
of  a  wiser  and  the  grace  of  a  kinder  rule  than  was  found 
in  their  own  nature. 

The  progress  of  Protestantism  in  Britain  has  been 
largely  aided  by  the  volumes  of  John  Foxe,  picturesque, 
simple,  earnest,  and  solemn.  The  earliest  edition  of  that 
great  record  was  not  in  English,  but  in  Latin,  the  learned 
tongue  of  the  age;  a  small  volume  compared  with  the 
subsequent  folios,  and  prepared  on  the  Continent,  where 
Foxe  was  a  fugitive  from  the  sway  of  Gardiner  and  Bon- 
ner and  Cardinal  Pole.  In  that  earlier  tome,  now  a  book 
of  great  rarity  and  high  cost,  are  some  narratives,  that  a 
kind  regard  for  the  heroic  sufferers  induced  the  good  Foxe 
to  withdraw  from  the  later  issues.  One  of  these  states 
the  appeal  made  to  Rogers,  afterward  a  martyr,  and  a 
manful  one,  in  the  days  of  Queen  Mary,  to  induce  him  to 
interpose  his  offices  with  the  government  of  Edward  VI., 
*  Eccles.  vii.  14. 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   EELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  207 

the  Protestant  predecessor  of  Queen  Mary,  to  prevent  the 
cruel  death  by  burning  of  some  Anabaptists.  Rogers — 
for  good  men  are  not  always  and  altogether  good — replied 
to  his  fellow-Protestant,  that  burning  was  not  so  painful  a 
death.  His  friend,  supposed  to  have  been  Foxe  himself, 
smiting  the  hand  of  Rogers,  replied,  that  he  might  yet 
have  occasion  to  know  that  it  was  not  so  easy ;  and  among 
the  early  victims  of  Edward's  sister,  truculent  Mary,  was 
this  same  Rogers.  Spite  of  the  claims  of  wife  and  children, 
he  faltered  not ;  but  made,  blessed  be  God,  a  heroic  end. 
But  probably,  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  readers  of 
that  first  Latin  edition,  and  in  Foxe's  own  ej'es,  the  stake 
where,  as  these  on  the  Continent  heard  of  it,  Rogers  was 
bound  and  burned,  seemed  somewhat  of  a  retribution  as 
well  as  a  stage  of  heroic  perseverance.  So  good  old  Hugh 
Latimer  had  thought  little  of  the  piety,  and  rated  but 
meanly  the  patient  and  cheerful  endurance,  of  Anabaptist 
martyrs,  whom  he  too  had  heard  of  as  suffering  in  the 
same  manner.  Meeting,  as  we  doubt  not  Latimer  and 
Rogers  did,  in  the  presence  of  the  same  Christ,  the  Ana- 
baptist sufferers,  for  whom  they  had  in  the  early  years  little 
commiseration,  both  had  occasion  to  adore  and  rejoice  in 
that  Saviour's  grace,  which  overlooked  in  both  of  them 
their  adherent  imperfections  and  errors,  and  taught  them, 
in  the  Beatific  Vision,  to  find,  not  in  self  or  brethren,  but 
in  him,  the  one  Christ  and  the  one  God,  that  absolute  per- 
fection which  left  "nothing  after  him"  to  be  desired,  to 
be  missed,  and  to  be  corrected. 

So  their  descendants,  on  either  shore  of  the  Atlantic, 
have  cause  to  bless  God  for  the  wondrous  brightness  and 


208  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

value  of  their  services  to  the  cause  of  truth,  of  national 
freedom,  and  of  religious  fruitfulness.  The  eulogies  have 
been  ardent,  and  they  might  well  be  so ;  but  here,  too,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  earlier  worthies  of  the  Marian  era,  God 
has  not  suffered  his  people  to  find,  in  their  human  an- 
cestry, however  noble  and  saintly  and  blessed,  a  perfec- 
tion of  influence  and  a  symmetry  entire  and  unimpeach- 
able. There,  too,  men,  if  candid  and  teachable,  find  them- 
selves shut  up  to  the  conclusion,  that  man  in  some  aspect 
and  at  some  time  fails,  and  that  God  alone  is  the  Un- 
failing. 

The  vacated  jDulpits,  the  prisons,  and  the  pillories  of 
the  mother-country,  and  the  wildernesses  of  this  Western 
world,  have  borne  record  to  the  stern  endurance  and  the 
resolute  energy  and  the  prayerful  trust  of  these  men  of 
God.  And  our  own  people  in  them,  and  in  the  scatterings 
and  siftings  of  Waldensians  and  Huguenots  and  Palatines 
and  Hollanders  against  our  own  wild  coast,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  feeble  colonies,  have  had  men  whose  story 
bears  inspection,  and  whose  example  deserves  devout 
honor.  But  still,  back  of  their  imperfections  and  insuffi- 
ciencies, lies  the  same  horizon,  stretching  out  and  call- 
ing "  after "  God — a  long,  wide  field  that  his  faithful- 
ness and  his  truthfulness  only  can  adequately  fill. 

Of  the  man  whom  Southey  and  Whately  eulogized, 
and  whom  Bancroft — a  scholar  not  of  our  communion — has 
placed  so  vividly  and  brilliantly  on  the  pages  of  the 
national  annals,  an  old  Puritan  worthy.  Cotton  Mather, 
had  said,  that  he,  Roger  Williams,  "had  a  windmill  in 
his  head."    Gather  up  such  comments,  and  the  founders 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND    RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  209 

of  Rhode  Island  may  be  disparaged ;  but  a  sheaf,  full  and 
ill-odoivd,  of  such  censure,  would  not  certainly  serve  to 
honor  the  cause  of  the  common  Master.  Our  own  de- 
nomination has  been  sometimes  suspected  of  canonizing 
this  worthy.  As  a  people,  it  is  a  fault  of  which  we  are 
as  little  guilty  as  our  brethren,  it  may  be.  Certainly,  the 
acclaim  of  genuine  admiration,  about  the  character  and 
exploits  of  English  and  American  Puritans,  we  as  Bap- 
tists have  not  habitually  or  generally  sought  to  lessen  or 
drown ;  we  have  rather  shared  it  and  swelled  it.  In  the 
canonization  of  Romish  saints,  it  is  customary  to  employ 
one  who  argues  the  case  against  the  proposed  candidate 
for  saintly  honors,  and  whom  the  populace  call  "the 
devil's  counsel,"  impeaching,  disparaging,  and  travesty- 
ing the  new  saint.  Imagine  such  a  work  among  Protest- 
ant Christians,  and  how  easy  were  it  to  gather  from  the 
missiles  of  controversy,  criticism,  and  enmity,  masses  of 
scorn  and  invective.  The  Wesleys,  to  whom  Westminster 
Abbey  has  lately  opened  its  doors,  suffered  largely  in  this 
way.  Smollett,  a  man  of  some  genius  as  a  poet  and 
romance-writer,  yet,  in  his  Historxj  of  England,  has  most 
unworthily  portrayed  men  immeasurably  in  mental 
power  and  moral  worth  his  own  superiors.  So  the  David 
Brainard  whom  Yale  expelled  and  refused  to  restore ;  and 
the  Henry  Martyn  over  whose  weakness,  as  unnatural,  so 
kindly  a  man  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh  commented,  so 
unhappily  and  unjustly,  we  think ;  and  that  great  name 
in  American  history,  the  elder  Jonathan  Edwards,  so 
towering   in  intellect,  but  Avho   speaks  Avith  so  plaintive 

a  frankness  of  his  own  feeble  spirits, — might  all,  to  an 
IS*  0 


210  LECTUEES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTOHY. 

industrious  Advocatus  Diaboli — the  scholar  who  should 
thus  hold  a  brief  for  the  devil,  the  "  Accuser  of  the  Breth- 
ren ■' — furnish  a  theme  of  sarcastic  depreciation.  George 
Buchanan,  the  Scotch  scholar  and  patriot,  whom  Jesuit 
poets  have  represented  as  in  his  last  days  unable  to  recol- 
lect the  Lord's  Prayer;  and  the  Beza;  and  the  Calvin; 
and  the  stern  John  Knox,  whom  Scotland  so  justly  and 
reverently  honors, — how  have  they  each  borne  the  most 
terrible  denunciations.  From  Luther's  days  down  to 
those  of  Scotch  Covenanters  and  British  Quakers,  how 
much  have  raillery  and  reviling  and  misrepresentation 
done  to  belittle  and  vilifj^  men  of  whom  yet  the  world 
was  not  worthy  ? 

Roger  Williams  was  a  native  of  Wales,  born,  according 
to  what  seem  the  most  credible  accounts,  in  1599,  in  Gla- 
morganshire.. An  antiquary  of  our  own  city  thinks  that 
he  has  ascertained  his  birthplace  to  have  been  at  Cum 
Towey,  near  Neath,  and  that  he  was  related  to  a  family,  the 
Williamses,  of  Aberpergwm,  long  settled  and  still  residing 
there,  and  who  claim  a  relationship  to  Oliver  Cromwell. 
For  the  great  Protector  is  sprung  from  a  family  of  the 
name  of  Williams,  who,  intermarrying  with  one  of  the 
kin  of  the  Thomas  Cromwell,  so  powerful  as  a  statesman 
under  Henry  VIIL,  applied  for,  and,  as  was  then  easily 
done,  obtained,  a  change  of  name  to  that  of  their  great 
patron  and  kinsman.  When  the  protectorate  of  Crom- 
well was  closed  by  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  a  nephew 
of  Oliver,  who  sat  in  the  British  Parliament,  applied  for 
an  act  changing  his  name  back  to  Williams  again — a  fact 
in  after-times  as  little  to  his  credit  as  it  seemed  in  that 


THE  BAPTISTS   AXD   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  211 

day  useful  for  his  case  and  influence.'  He  bartered 
abiding  distinction  for  cheap  obscurity.  If  the  founder 
of  Rhode  Island  were  of  the  Aberpergwm  family,  it  would 
account  for  the  representation,  sometimes  made,  that 
Williams  pleasantly  claimed,  at  times,  to  be  of  the  blood 
of  the  great  Protector ;  for  that  Aberpergwm  family  now 
lay  such  claim.  The  crest  of  the  Aberpergwm  family,  and 
tlie  Welsh  motto,  were  at  least  singularly  appropriate  to 
the  after-story  of  the  builder  of  Providence.  The  house- 
hold crest  was  the  lamb  and  flag,  and  its  old  British 
legend,  "  Suff"ered  that  he  might  conquer."  When  a 
mere  lad,  Williams  attracted  the  notice  of  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  the  great  lawyer,  by  his  diligence  in  taking  sermon 
notes,  and  was  placed  in  the  Bluecoat  school  of  London, 
that  has  turned  out  so  many  great  men  from  Wesley's 
days  to  Coleridge's  and  Havelock's.  He  seems  to  have 
studied  at  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge,  and  graduated 
there.  His  name,  Roger,  had  been  given  him,  probably,  in 
lionor  of  a  great  British  commander  in  the  Netherlands, 
wliom  Camden  praises  for  his  valor,  and  whom  the  Earl 
of  Leicester,  the  English  commander-in-chief,  praised  as 
worth  his  weight  in  gold  for  wisdom  equal  to  his  valor. 
A  public  and  elaborate  funeral  was  given  him ;  and 
for  a  time,  probably,  it  seemed  as  if  the  little  name- 
sake in  Glamorganshire  would  hardly  rival  the  baronet 
and  soldier  thus  honored  by  a  national  service  of  entomb- 
ment. But  peace  has  her  victories ;  and  the  fame  of  the 
Netherland  battle-field  is,  in  our  days,  almost  evanished 
before  the  memories  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations.     In  the  church,  the  Puritan  proclivities  of 


212  LECTURES   ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Williams  awakened  persecution.  He  had  been,  for  a 
time,  shielded  by  an  eminent  namesake,  then  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  tlie  same  afterward  Arclibishop  of  York,  who  at 
one  time  had  been  chancellor  under  James  I.,  and  whom 
Laud  supplanted  and  persecuted.  Williams  found  his 
departure  from  England  so  hurried  that  he  could  not,  to 
his  regret,  pay  a  visit  to  his  friend,  the  aged  Sir  Edward 
Coke.  Coke's  last  stage  had,  for  his  patriotic  services 
and  his  share  in  drawing  up  the  Bill  of  Rights,  made 
his  close  more  happy  and  illustrious  than  were  the  later 
days  of  his  great  rival.  Lord  Bacon.  In  his  New  England 
settlement,  the  gifts  and  zeal  of  Williams  awakened  regard 
and  admiration.  But  he  was  early  and  urgent  and  out- 
spoken in  his  denunciation  of  conforming  to  what  he 
deemed  the  grave  errors  of  the  Established  Church,  and 
Avould  require  from  consistent  church  members  separa- 
tion from  its  services.  Most  of  the  Puritans  would  not  go 
that  length ;  and  to  some  later  critics  such  rigid  separa- 
tion has  seemed  inconsistent  with  his  large  views  of  soul- 
liberty  and  the  relations  of  the  church  to  the  state.  We 
think  the  difficulties  disappear  when  it  is  remembered 
that  bis  separation  was  to  be  inside  the  church,  in  its  con- 
stituency and  membership.  As  to  the  state,  he  held  it 
early  not  entitled  to  punish  breakers  of  what  are  called 
duties  of  the  first  table,  the  earlier  of  the  ten  com- 
mandments, those  enjoining  our  duties  to  God.  These 
offences  he  held  the  state  not  entitled  to  punish,  except 
where  they  involved  a  breach  of  civil  peace.  He  after- 
ward formulated  his  doctrine  under  the  name  of  "  Soul- 
Liberty,"  a  quaint  but  expressive  phrase,  and  carrying  a 


THE    BAPTISTS   AND   RELIGIOUS   LII5ERTY.  213 

world  of  revolution  in  its  brief,  terse  syllables.  His 
mnid,  like  that  of  many  of  his  race  among  the  Welsh  of 
Great  Britain  and  among  the  Bretons  of  France— a  Pela- 
gius,  an  Abelard,  and  a  Lamennais,— had  the  courage 
of  its  own  convictions;  but  also  sacrificed,  it  may  be, 
at  times,  to  logical  cohesion,  the  interests  of  practical 
usefulness. 

Though  he  had  the  esteem  of  many  most  excellent  men 
in  the  colony,  he  had  awakened  alarm.  The  ultimate  re- 
sult was,  that  Hugh  Peters,  a  much  less  clear  thinker  and 
a  much  ruder  manager,  gave  him  notice  of  his  exclusion 
from  the  church  to  which  he  had  belonged.  Measures 
were  adopted,  to  use  the  phrase  of  Masson,  the  biogra- 
pher of  Milton,  "to  kidnap"  Williams,  place  him  on  ship- 
board, and  return  him,  a  banished  and  discredited  man, 
to  England.  The  banishment  he  bravely  encountered; 
but  the  deportation  he  evaded  by  seeking  a  new  home  in 
the  wilderness  among  the  savages,  to  whom  he  had  shown 
sympathy,  and  by  whom  he  was  kindly  received,  though, 
as  he  says,  "  bed  and  bread,"  the  repose  and  the  food  of 
civilized  life,  were  long  things  unknown. 

When  wishing  to  visit  England— not  as  a  deported,  dis- 
credited man,  but  to  publish  a  work  on  his  views  of  re- 
ligious persecution— he  had  to  seek  the  Dutch  settlement 
of  our  own  New  Amsterdam,  then  under  magistrates  from 
Holland,  and  thence  to  find  his  way  to  the  old  country. 
He  found  an  Indian  war  raging  around  and  against  the 
city,  and  his  kindly  offices  with  the  Indians  were  prof- 
fered and  used  toward  securing  a  return  of  peace.  In 
England,  he  launched  his  work,  now  peculiarly  identified 


214  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

with  his  name  as  an  autlior  and  with  the  great  question 
of  rehgious  toleration  and  persecution. 

He  had  in  England  the  friendship  of  the  younger  Vane, 
of  Milton,  whom  he  aided  with  instruction  in  the  Dutch 
language,  and  of  Cromwell.  Men  like  the  Scotchman 
Baillie,  deeply  averse  to  his  views  on  religious  toleration, 
seem  yet  to  have  been  conciliated  by  his  spirit,  and  Bail- 
lie  speaks  of  him  as  "his  friend."  Baillie  was  then  in 
attendance  on  the  great  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines, 
in  which  the  Presbyterians  of  England  and  Scotland  were 
the  chief  controlling  power,  though  a  few  Episcopalians 
and  some  Independents  belonged  to  it.  In  that  body,  by 
its  preachers  and  in  the  sermons  of  its  preachers  before 
the  two  houses  of  Parliament,  the  sentiment  of  toleration 
was  denounced  as  big  with  all  evils  of  complicity  with 
falsehood  and  sin.  And  had  the  views  of  the  majority 
in  that  assembly  found  adoption  b}^  the  Parliament,  and 
by  Cromwell  above  all,  Presbyterianism  would  have  been 
established  with  but  a  mere  toleration  of  Independenc}^, 
Avhilst  a  denial  of  Infant  Baptism  would  have  been  made 
an  offence  punishable  Avith  imj)risonment. 

The  army  and  navy  had  become  largely  pervaded  with 
our  own  denominational  views.  Cromwell,  himself  an 
Independent,  was  in  close  relations  with  valiant  officers 
and  soldiers  and  sailors  who  were  thoroughly  Baptist  in 
their  views  of  doctrine  and  polity.  Williams  returned  to 
his  American  home ;  and  it  was  well  he  had  done  so,  for 
his  book,  innocent  as  we  now  regard  it,  was  ordered  to  be 
burned  by  the  hangman;  and  had  the  writer  remained, 
harsh  measures  might  have  visited  himself  personally. 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  215 

Now,  of  that  great  assembly  of  divines  and  scliolars 
where  Selden  actually  sat,  and  to  which  Usslier  had  been 
invited  but  never  came,  we  would  speak  with  unaffected 
reverence  and  affection.  Baxter,  not  of  them,  pronounces 
a  warm  eulogy  on  their  worth  and  power.  But  when  they 
set  themselves  to  prove,  as  Milton  said  in  effect,  that 

"Presbyter  was  but  old  priest  writ  large," 

their   own  Presbyterianism   of  the  confession   and  cat- 
echism, both  which  they  had  launched,  and  of  the  cov- 
enant prepared  in  Scotland,  which,  with  slight  modifica- 
tions, they  had  adopted  and  signed  in  England,— when 
this  they  would  make,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Episcopa- 
lian and  the  Independent  and  the  Baptist,  the  sole  faith 
of  the  land  and  of  its  colonies,  it  was  but  copying  in  a 
rounder   hand,  "  writ  large,"  as  John  Milton  phrases  it, 
the  sacerdocy  that  they  and  their  fathers  had  denounced 
in  Bancroft  and  punished  so  sternly  in  Laud.     Men,  as 
Cromwell  more  than  once  firmly  and  pathetically  pleaded, 
Avho  had  ventured  their  lives  under  the  national  banner 
by  land  and  by  sea  to  secure  the  liberty  of  the  people, 
were  not  to  be  required  thus  to  do  violence  to  their  own 
consciences.     The  liberty  of  the  nation,  so  won,  had  well 
earned  "soul-liberty"  for  the  nation's  champions.    Yet 
men  like  the  godly  Samuel  Rutherford,  the  Scotsman, 
whose  letters  Baxter  is  said  once  to  have  pronounced  a 
book  next  in  place  to  the  Bible,  and  Baxter  himself,  the 
writer  of  the  Saint's  Everlasting  Rest, — preached  and  wrote 
against  the  new  toleration.     Plerbert  Palmer,  a  man  of 
genius  and  piety  and  noble  connexions,  and  of  high  place 


216  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

in  the  Westminster  Assembly,  preached  also  earnestly, 
if  not  violently,  against  the  doctrine.  Petitions  came  up 
from  London,  numerously  signed,  and  sustaining  the 
same  views.  Do  we  recall  these  facts,  in  order  to  dispar- 
age the  holy  and  able  men  who  thus  misjudged?  Not  so; 
but  to  remind  the  Christians  of  our  day  that  the  religious 
immunities,  now  so  free  and  so  unquestioned,  were  in  those 
daj's  bought  by  a  great  fight  of  afflictions,  and  as  by  cruel 
mockings  and  scourgings,  and  at  the  risk  also  of  bonds 
and  imprisonment. 

Our  own  Baptist  denomination  was  so  manifestly  and 
universally  identified  Avith  this  question  of  religious  tol- 
eration, that  when  some  riotous  soldiers  of  the  Baptist 
faith  were  brought  before  Sir  Matthew  Hale  for  interrupt- 
ing the  worship  of  others,  that  upright  magistrate  empha- 
sized the  inconsistency  of  it  b}''  men  who  as  Baptists  stood 
so  largely  and  strongly  for  liberty  of  conscience. 

It  has  been  said,  that  Roger  Williams  was  not  the  dis- 
coverer of  this  great  truth.  He  did  not  claim  it.  He 
frankly  spoke  of  earlier  worthies  of  his  own  denomina- 
tion who  had  written — being  in  confinement  and  denied 
the  use  of  paper — their  views  on  the  paper  stopper  of  the 
flask  containing  the  milk  with  which  they  were  fed.  That 
stopper  was  unrolled  into  a  sheet,  and  the  milk  was  used 
to  write  upon  it;  then,  the  sheet  being  held  by  the  friends 
who  received  it  to  the  fire,  it  became  discolored  and 
legible,  and  thus  he  said  it  had  been  before  taught.  And 
Featley,  a  learned  man,  one  of  the  few  Episcopalians  in 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  a  good  man,  but  a  bitter  one, 
wrote  of  the  book  of  Williams,  mistaking  and  misrepre- 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   KELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  217 

sen  ting  tliis  statement.  He  said,  in  allusion  to  the  re- 
ligious and  fraternal  tone  of  Williams'  book,  that  it  was 
milk  containing  some  rat's  bane. 

Not  the  originator  of  the  truth,  but  proclaiming  and 
defending  it  at  the  peril  of  his  own  freedom  and  reputa- 
tion and  influence,  he  was  so  far  worthy  of  gratitude  as 
its  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  champion.  So  Jenner  did 
not  claim  to  have  discovered  the  power  of  vaccination. 
Milkmaids,  long  before,  had  perceived  the  power  of  the 
eruption  to  neutralize  the  dreaded  and  often  fatal  small- 
pox. Jenner  staked  his  medical  fame  against  the  denun- 
ciations and  dislike  of  his  professional  brethren  in  the 
promulgation  of  the  truth,  and  he  earned  righteously  the 
reward  that  the  Parliament  and  a  grateful  nation  awarded 
him.  Harvey  is  praised  for  giving  currency  to  the  great 
fact  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood ;  but  it  was  virtually 
hinted  at  by  one  of  the  old  Christian  Fathers  centuries 
before,  and  Solomon  is  thought  by  many  to  have  taught 
it  when  talking  of  the  pitcher  emptied  and  filled,  and  the 
wheel  revolving  at  fountain  and  cistern  of  the  human 
body.  But  because  Harvey  did  not  first  suspect  or  dis- 
cover it,  does  Science  erase  his  name  from  the  scarcely- 
crowded  list  of  great  discoverers  ?  So  moral  science  and 
religious  freedom  needed  a  stalwart  and  sinewy  cham- 
pion, and  Roger  Williams  was  such.  He  had  the  sym- 
pathy of  his  friend,  the  younger  Sir  Harry  Vane,  one 
of  the  greatest  statesmen  of  Britain,  to  whom  Milton 
accords  the  distinction,  which  most  statesmen  have  scarce 
deserved,  of  knowing  the  bounds  that  part  the  civil  from 
the  religious  power.     He  had  the  sympathy  of  Cromwell, 

19 


218  LECTUEES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

of  Milton,  of  Hutchinson,  of  Baptist  soldiers  like  Harri- 
son and  Dean  and  Lawrence,  and  of  Baptist  sailors  like 
Admiral  Lawson,  the  associate  and  compeer  of  Blake; 
but  he  arrayed  against  him  the  masses — the  religious 
masses ;  and  the  herd  of  statesmen  who  walk  in  the  well- 
worn  path  of  old  precedents;  and  the  distrust,  loud,  sacred, 
and  inveterate,  of  some  very  good  and  very  devout  Chris- 
tians. He  persisted.  It  was  said  that  England  would  be 
made  what  Amsterdam  had  become  by  its  wide  tolera- 
tion— -a  very  sink  of  all  errors  and  of  prodigious  evils. 
But  he  feared  God  and  fainted  not,  and  God's  providence 
blessed  his  courage ;  and  God's  people  in  these  later  ages, 
and  over  wide  continents — farther  west  than  his  Indian 
friends  ever  travelled,  farther  east  than  his  incipient  mis- 
sion zeal  had  ever  ventured  to  spread  its  wings  of  holy 
enterprise — God's  people  have  learned  to  acknowledge 
tardily,  and  some  of  them  very  begrudgingly,  the  justice 
of  these  bold  principles,  and  the  safety  of  these  greatly- 
decried  liberties  for  the  individual  conscience  and  for  the 
separately-worshipping  assembly. 

Yet  he  did  not  continue  long  a  Baptist,  but  went  over  to 
the  Seekers.  Some  understood,  in  that  day,  by  this  terra, 
a  body  deserting  all  religion  and  sinking,  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  day,  into  Nullifidians,  or  men  of  no  faith. 
It  was  a  grievous  misconception.  Like  the  Plymouth 
Brethren  of  our  own  time,  they  leaned  too  much  on  the 
distinct  line  of  spiritual  descent.  They  wanted  a  regular 
traceable  line  of  spiritual  genealogy,  like  the  apostolic 
orders  of  the  High  Church  Episcopacy,  or  like  the  newly- 
desiderated  apostolate  of  the  followers  of  EdAvard  Irving. 


THE   BAPTISTS  AND   RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY.  219 

They  waited  or  sought — hence  their  name  of  Seekers — 
such  living  apostles,  such  heaven-sealed  orders.  They 
died  without  the  sight.  But  they  lost  not  their  care  for 
man  or  their  faith  in  God's  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel. 
Vane  was  with  Williams;  some  suppose  Vane  to  have 
been  the  teacher  of  Roger  in  this  expectant  attitude  of 
irresolution;  others,  like  George  Horn— a  divine  from 
Holland,  then  visiting  England,  and  writing  of  its  relig- 
ious bodies — seem  to  regard  Williams  as  the  instructor, 
in  this  dubiety  and  irresolution,  of  his  friend  Vane.  He 
was  an  honored  and  cherished  guest  at  Vane's  residence. 
He  returned  to  England  in  later  times,  and  obtained  a 
charter  from  the  restored  Stuarts  for  his  colony.  A  man 
of  fully  lovable  character,  he  seems  to  have  been,  by  the 
testimony  of  friends,  and  even  the  reluctant  concessions 
of  enemies. 

His  magnanimity  was  singularly  illustrated  in  his 
using  his  knowledge  of  the  Indians,  and  influence  with 
them,  to  avert  from  the  colonies  that  had  banished  and 
maligned  him  the  butcheries  of  an  Indian  invasion.  He 
learned  the  Indian  language  and  wrote  in  it,  annexing 
poetry  of  his  own,  English  verse  of  the  most  rugged  cha- 
racter. With  the  Dutch  governor  of  our  own  good  Man- 
hattan, he  discussed  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
Indian  tril)es,  his  Hollander  host  inclining  to  suppose 
the  red  man  of  our  own  forests  and  shores  of  the  same 
stock  with  Icelanders  of  Europe.  A  love  of  usefulness, 
and  a  skill  of  winning  hearts  by  simplicity  and  affection- 
ate earnestness,  seem  in  his  case  to  have  been  marked 
traits.     It  is  hard,  therefore,  to  see  some  critics  lightly 


220  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTOEY. 

quoting  impeachments  of  bitter  foes  upon  his  motives  and 
his  truthfulness.  Puritanism  itself,  the  great  dominant 
body,  that  in  some  of  its  chief  representatives  he  with- 
stood and  foiled  in  discussion  as  to  this  great  principle 
of  religious  toleration — Puritanism,  we  say,  has  itself  suf- 
fered sufficiently  from  satire  and  malign  distortion  of 
character  and  motive,  to  make  those  who  would  defend  it 
as  against  the  rival  fame  of  Williams  to  remember  that 
"  cruel  mockings  "  have,  from  the  days  of  Paul,  the  great 
apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  been  no  uncommon  attendant  on 
the  steps  of  truly  upright  and  eminently  holy  men. 

Ben  Jonson  in  the  early  days  of  the  Stuarts,  and  But- 
ler, of  Hudibras  fame,  in  the  later  days  of  that  family, 
have  poured  out  vials  of  scorn  on  the  Puritan  traits  and 
visage  and  dress  and  dialect;  but  the  verdict  of  dispas- 
sionate history  has  not  sustained  the  satire.  And  men  who 
know  what  the  power  of  that  great  school  has  been,  here 
and  in  Britain,  on  national  order  and  freedom  and  thrift 
and  valor,  may  well  wonder  that  champions  of  Puritan- 
ism should  seek  to  bring  the  like  artillery  of  derision  to 
bear  on  services  and  risks  and  sacrifices  like  those  of  the 
founder  of  Rhode  Island.  The  ribald  songsters  of  the 
Restoration  have  done  their  worst  to  besmear  the  names 
of  the  Cromwellian  heroes  and  saints ;  but  each  day  is 
making  the  libel  more  odious  and  incredible,  and  bright- 
ening the  feme  of  the  libelled  into  a  higher  lustre. 

Not  many  years  ago  the  remains  of  Williams  were  dis- 
interred. It  was  found  that  the  roots  of  an  apple  tree 
had  penetrated  the  coffin-walls  as  they  mouldered,  and 
followed  the  line  of  the  skeleton  with  a  curious  fidelity. 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  221 

It  was  as  if  to  say,  that  the  righteous  are  fruitful  of  good 
even  in  the  dust  of  their  mouldering.  And  over  a  broad 
republic— every  day  widening  its  territory  and  the  sweep 
of  its  influence,  political,  literary,  and  religious— it  seems 
to-day  impossible  to  say  how  much  of  the  national  order 
and  happiness  is  traceable  to  the  memory  and  example 
of  the  man  there  entombed ;  is  the  fruitage,  under  God's 
benediction,  of  the  sufferings  and  sacrifices  of  the  weary 
pilgrim  and  exile  who  there  found  repose. 

A  free  church  he  taught— as  against  the  logic  of  good, 
eminently  good,  but  narrow,  fearfully  narrow,  minds,  like 
that  of  John  Cotton — was  safe  to  hold  its  own  against 
error  and  worldly  power.  The  experiment  has  verified 
the  principle.  The  churches  of  primitive  Christianity  had 
done  it,  not  only  without  such  aid  of  the  state,  but  as 
against  the  power  and  bribes  and  fierce  proscriptions  of 
the  state,  indignant  and  inveterately  prejudiced. 

But  a  free  church  demands  something  more  than  un- 
curbed license  and  general  indifference.  It  is  not,  in  our 
own  community,  free  rum  at  every  corner,  breeding  a 
brutal  intemperance ;  it  is  not  free  fraud,  playing  its  own 
dire  will  at  ballot-box  and  registry-roll ;  it  is  not  free  pec- 
ulation, draining  your  treasuries  and  consuming  your 
taxes  and  bribing  your  legislatures,— that  will  enable  the 
state  to  stand. 

So  guided  and  so  drugged,  it  staggers,  if  its  course  be 

unchecked,  toward  the  rule  of  the  strong-Avilled  despotism, 

as  that  power  shall  be  intercalated  with  this,  the  sway  of 

the  infuriated  rabble. 

A  church,  really  and  radically  free,  needs   the   Spirit, 
19  * 


222  LECTURES   ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  truth,  and  the  presence  of  God.  It  will  find  these  in 
the  faith  that  trusts  a  j^resent  Jehovah.  It  will  lose  them 
if  it  make  liberty,  apart  from  truth  and  equity,  its  idol. 
Truth  itself,  said  Pascal  in  one  of  his  profound  utter- 
ances, severed  from  the  love  of  the  truth,  may  be  an  idol; 
and  liberty,  if  it  be  unprincipled  and  untaught,  of  the 
earth  earth}',  is  the  sure  bane  of  a  people,  and  carries  dis- 
solution into  the  jDarty  employing  it  and  the  nation  per- 
mitting it. 

No  theme  can  be  regarded,  in  our  own  land  and  in  the 
age  upon  which  God  has  cast  our  lot,  as  more  popular 
than  that  of  liberty.  We  stamp  the  head  on  our  coins ; 
and  a  foreign  artist,  from  the  country  Avhich  gave  to  our 
Revolutionary  forefathers  a  La  Fayette,  proposes  to  rear 
its  towering  image  as  a  statue  and  lighthouse  at  the  gates 
of  our  own  harbor;  there,  the  winds  of  ocean  sighing 
around  its  head,  the  waves  of  ocean  breaking  at  its  feet, 
to  hail  the  emigrant  landing  on  our  shores,  with  its  prom- 
ise as  to  the  spirit  welcoming  him  throughout  our  institu- 
tions, and  thus  also  to  remind  the  American,  quitting  his 
country  for  the  Old  World,  that  in  such  a  name  he  is  to 
brace  himself  against  the  allurements  of  mediaeval  art, 
and  by  such  a  memory  to  estimate  aright  the  real  Avorth 
of  ancient  despotisms,  gorgeous  but  oppressive,  costly 
and  outworn. 

But  we  are,  perchance,  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  lib- 
erty, if  a  priceless  treasure,  is  also  a  trust  not  to  be  dis- 
charged without  effort  and  eager  vigilance  and  anxious 
sacrifice.  It  will  not  be  its  own  guardian.  Back  of  na- 
tions and  governments,  its  security  lies  in  the  individual 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  223 

conscience.  Education  and  religion  are  among  its  indis- 
pensable conditions,  and  he  who  knew,  better  than  sage 
or  jurist  hiis  ever  gauged  them,  the  capacities  and  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  human  soul,  the  glories  and  the  sorrows 
awaiting  the  nation,  for  he  is  tlie  Wieldcr  of  the  prov- 
idence which  shapes  the  annals  of  the  entire  race, — he  it 
is  who  has  said  in  one  brief  but  inexhaustible  sentence, 
"  The  truth  shall  make  you  free."  It  is  only  as  man  gets 
access  to  the  real,  the  true,  the  innermost  core  of  things, 
and  the  great  controlling  principle  of  duty,  right,  and 
liappiness;  it  is  only  in  science,  as  we  reach  the  truly 
existent;  and,  in  art,  conceive  and  reproduce  the  intrin- 
sically beautiful ;  and,  in  faith,  get  near  to  him,  the  Great 
Verity  of  revelation  and  salvation,  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life, — that  man  becomes  personally  and  uncon- 
querably free.  Fact — the  combined  grouping  of  the  great 
facts  of  God's  making  and  God's  telling  and  God's  giving 
■ — the  fact  is  the  very  basis  of  true  freedom. 

Another  great  lesson  of  the  Book,  in  which  the  world's 
Maker  tells  the  story  of  the  world's  making;  and  the 
world's  Ruler  lays  down  his  laws  for  the  world's  ruling ; 
and  the  world's  Redeemer  discloses  the  great  mystery  of 
the  world's  rescuing  and  restoring ;  and  the  world's  Judge 
lays  bare  the  grand  materials  he  is  storing  up  for  the 
world's  inevitable  and  materiable  dooming, — is,  that  only 
as  the  Book  of  God  becomes  the  manual  of  earth's  lore 
does  the  race  become  permanently,  innocently,  and  fra- 
ternally free.  He  adds,  by  his  apostle,  a  lesson  reserved 
for  the  age  of  higher  illumination,  that  was  to  follow  his 
own  ascension  and  his  return  to  the  Father,  that  "  where 


224  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty,"  where  the  Para- 
clete, proffering  his  influences,  is  welcomed,  heeded,  and 
cherished,  there  only  does  man  rise  to  the  dignity  of  the 
Lord's  freedman.  He  warns  us  against  the  false  teachers 
who,  promising  liberty,  should  be  themselves  the  servants 
of  corruption ;  or  who,  in  the  hapless  bondage  of  sin  them- 
selves, could  never  become  the  channels  of  a  true  illumin- 
ation and  the  messengers  of  a  permanent  and  indefeasible 
enfranchisement.  The  closet,  the  sanctuary,  the  Sunday- 
school,  conversions,  revivals,  missions,  all  the  enginery  of 
a  resuscitated  faitli,  and  an  energetic  charity,  and  a  world- 
wide hope,  are  among  the  necessities  of  a  true  freedom. 
For  the  Spirit's  presence  is  the  life-blood  of  liberty  in  any 
high,  just  sense  of  the  term :  and  this  Spirit,  thus  indis- 
pensable to  the  experience  of  soul-liberty,  is  a  jealous  and 
holy  Spirit,  who  must  be  revered ;  a  comprehensive,  boun- 
teous, and  self-surrendering  principle  in  the  regenerate 
heart,  that  seeks  light  for  all  people  and  blessedness  for 
the  whole  tenantry  of  the  round  globe. 

Out  of  these  Bible  relations,  as  between  freedom  and 
truth,  and  as  between  liberty  and  the  Divine  Paraclete, 
grow,  then,  our  great  social  needs.  We  need,  as  persons,  as 
households,  as  neighborhoods  and  denominations  and 
nations,  and  as  a  race,  a  free  press.  Milton  pleaded  elo- 
quently for  it  in  his  Areopagitica.  How  did  the  State 
Licenser  and  the  Church  Index  of  books  to  be  expurgated 
and  books  to  be  utterly  prohibited  stand  up  against  the 
claim  ;  but  the  cause  of  liberty  has  already  gained,  in 
the  lands  of  greatest  illumination  and  progress,  its  claim. 
It  is  a  claim  to  be  reopened  and  reargued,  if  the  Syllabus 


THE   BAPTISTS   AND   EELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  225 

and  the  Personal  Infallibility  become  the  law  of  Cbris- 
tendom.  When  the  Prussian  government  consulted  the 
devout  Neander  as  to  the  suppression  of  the  work,  of 
Strauss  by  state  repression,  he  counselled  its  having  its 
free  course,  whilst  Christianity  was  left  free  to  answer. 
The  result  showed  the  wisdom  of  the  advice.  Bunyan 
spoke  plaintively  of  being  scarce  able  to  see  out  of  the 
eyes  into  which  so  much  mud  of  obliquy  had  been  flung. 
Baxter  bore,  from  Jeffreys,  the  most  flagrant  and  violent 
insults,  uttered  under  the  sanction  of  the  judge's  robes, 
and  as  from  the  bench  whence  came,  in  the  days  of  the 
Stuarts,  fines,  incarceration,  branding,  and  death.  White- 
field,  as  Cowper  painted  him,  stood  "  j)illoried "  on  Infa- 
my's high  stage  and  bore  the  pelting  scorn  of  half  an  age. 
But  the  press  of  our  day  prints  the  biography  of  the 
evangelist,  and  multiplies  copies  of  the  Pilgrim  and 
the  Saint's  Everlasting  Best,  and  never,  except  as  anti- 
quarians disturb  the  dust-bin,  now  recalls  the  unsavory 
missiles,  with  Avhich  the  world  once  thought  to  extinguish 
the  reality  of  faith  and  the  might  of  true  godliness. 

And  so  society  needs,  if  it  is  to  be  made  free  and  kept 
free,  a  free  school.  It  is  only  an  instructed  and  a  well- 
principled  people  that  can  value  and  retain  the  freedom 
inherited  from  patriotic  and  religious  forefathers;  and 
society  has  its  right  over  the  household,  to  require  that, 
if  its  citizens  vote,  they  know  something  of  the  principles 
of  morality,  and  the  story  of  the  nation's  past,  and  the 
outlines  and  scope  of  the  nation's  future  duty  and  destiny. 
Back  of  ballot-box,  lies  the  town-school,  and  an  education 
that  sliall  prevent  the  peasantry  from  becoming  the  pas- 


226  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

sive,  blind  dupes  of  either  the  demagogue,  the  fanatic,  or 
the  priest. 

And  so,  too,  the  free  church  is  needed ;  not  the  commu- 
nit}^  that,  thrusting  aside  Scripture  and  superseding  God's 
oracles  by  man's  traditions,  affects  to  overrule  all  secular 
legislation  by  its  ecclesiastical  canons  and  political  inter- 
dicts; but  the  church,  as  Christ  left  it,  building  a  king- 
dom not  of  this  world,  and  in  its  separate,  self-governed 
assemblies  preparing  men  to  confront,  personally  and 
directly,  an  open  Bible,  a  present  Saviour,  and  a  regen- 
erating Spirit. 

Such  free  church  is  of  the  essence,  in  this  nineteenth 
Christian  century,  of  a  free  state.  Aside  from  it,  we 
may  see  spiritual  domination  crushing  out  the  last  mut- 
terings  of  dissent,  and  restoring  the  rule  of  Dominic,  as  it 
was  once  in  Mexico  of  the  New  World,  and  as  it  was  in 
Madrid  and  Rome  of  Europe,  and  at  Goa  of  Asia  in  the 
Old  World. 

Our  churches,  in  tlieir  missions,  did  their  share  in 
breaking  down  for  the  Bible,  God's  free  code,  its  way  to 
the  heathen  myriads  of  India,  against  the  barriers  set  up 
by  the  great  East  India  Company;  and  backed,  too,  though 
those  barriers  long  were,  by  the  vast  power  of  the  British 
government  at  home.  Whilst  God's  Spirit  is  invoked  and 
trusted  and  obeyed,  they  can  do  the  work  over  again,  if  it 
needs  to  be  done ;  and  by  the  help  of  the  Omnipresent 
and  Omnipotent  Christ,  it  is  not  arrogance  to  say,  that 
they  can  renew  the  conflict  and  repeat  the  victory,  in  the 
right  and  might  of  him  who  to  the  end  of  the  world  is 
with  his  loyal  followers. 


THE    BAPTISTS    AND    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY.  227 

As  the  dying  Wesley  said,  "the  best  of  all  is,  God  is 
Avitli  us."  Shrivelled  and  wrinkled,  and  already  smitten 
with  death,  the  poor  old  man's  arm  that  was  feebly  waved 
as  he  said  the  words ;  but  the  truth  that  came  from  the 
pale  lips  is  imperishable  and  imprescriptible.  Jehovah 
Hoods  with  his  omnipotence  the  whole  field  of  human 
activities  and  perils.  Trust  him,  ye  people,  and  your 
cause  is  surer  than  the  action  of  gravitation,  and  its 
movement  to  final  triumph  swifter  than  the  path  of 
the  light.  A  God  behind  it;  n  God  before  it;  a  God 
all  around  it.  He  inherits  the  past,  dominates  the  fu- 
ture, and  bids  his  people  only  know,  grasp,  and  use  the 
present. 


IX. 

THE  BAPTISTS 

OP   THE 

COMMONWEALTH  AND  PROTECTORATE. 


20 


THE   BAPTISTS 


COMMONWEALTH  AND  PROTECTORATE. 


When  we  speak  of  the  CommonAvealth  as  it  arose  on 
the  death  of  Charles  I.,  we  intend  to  include  also  the  Pro- 
tectorate of  Cromwell ;  and  as  many  of  the  men  formed 
in  that  age  did  not  end  their  earthly  career  until  years 
after  Cromwell  had  been  gathered  to  the  tomb,  we  cannot 
avoid  grouping  to  some  extent  the  period  of  the  Stuart 
Restoration,  and  a  monarchy  readjusted  on  the  Britisli 
throne,  with  the  era  of  the  institutions  which  had  pre- 
ceded, and  to  some  extent  had  conditioned  and  limited, 
such  restoration. 

Three  great  influences  were  contending  for  the  control 
of  the  people.  The  first  was  a  supreme  love  for  the 
Bible ;  its  motto,  "  It  is  written."  It  was  an  age  of  great 
events  and  of  remarkable  men.  The  British  constitution, 
so  long  the  boast  of  the  nation  and  the  object  of  admir- 
ing or  envious  regard  on  the  part  of  other  peoples,  cannot 
be  understood  without  a  thorough  review  of  that  era  in 
English  history.  For  a  time  it  seemed  doubtful  whether 
the  old  kingly  rule  of  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts  would 
not  permanently  give  place  to  republican   institutions, 

231 


232  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

such  as  the  scholars  of  the  land  had  pondered  in  the 
history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  which  had  been  in  later 
times  reproduced  in  the  free  cities  of  Italy,  as  in  the 
Swiss  confederacy  on  the  Continent,  and  in  the  republic 
of  the  United  Netlierlands,  as  the  last  arose  after  the  mag- 
nificent birth-struggle  of  Holland  and  her  fellow-prov- 
inces against  the  truculent  power  of  Spain  and  Rome. 

The  original  purpose  of  the  British  patriots  who  with- 
stood James  the  father  and  his  son,  Charles  the  First,  in 
their  encroachments  on  the  powers  of  Parliament  and  the 
national  freedom,  had  certainly  contemplated  no  such 
sweeping  overthrow;  but  the  necessities  of  the  conflict, 
and  the  jDroved  duplicity  of  their  king,  and  the  reckless, 
aggressive  despotism  of  some  of  his  counsellors,  like  Straf- 
ford, shut  wp  the  men  who  had  originally  taken  arms  to 
vindicate  rights  most  ancient  and  sacred,  as  did  Eliot, 
Pym,  and  Hampden,  to  make  their  protest  efi'ectual  and 
their  reforms  abiding  by  safeguards,  that  sheared  royalty 
of  its  trappings,  and  finally  brought  the  king,  as  a  truce- 
breaker  and  a  subverter  of  the  constitution  under  which 
his  crown  was  held,  to  the  ghastly,  bloody  scaffold. 

In  resisting  the  forces  that  sustained  the  king,  the  Par- 
liamentary leaders  soon  discerned,  as  Cromwell  early  saw, 
and  forcibly  stated  it  to  his  kinsman,  the  great  patriot, 
John  Hampden,  the  need  of  enlisting  a  class  of  men  as 
soldiers  who  had  intelligence  and  religious  principle,  a 
Bible  in  their  knapsacks,  and  a  conscience  behind  their 
sharp  bayonets.  The  soldiers  thus  raised,  who  prayed  as 
well  as  fought,  soon  proved  themselves  invincible.  Crom- 
well, whose  valor  and  practical  wisdom  soon  raised  him 


THE  co->rMON\vi:Ar/ni  axd  rROTEcroRATE.     233 

to  higher  posts,  and  clothed  liiin  with  widenino;  influences 
and  made  him  necessary  to  the  party  of  reform  and  of  free- 
dom, had,  wc  helieve,  no  other  than  honorahle  and  self- 
sacrificing  designs  in  his  original  engagement.  As  he 
afterward  said,  "No  man  rises  so  high  as  he  who  knows, 
not  whither  he  is  going."  It  was  true  of  him,  that,  not 
aiming  at  present  advancement,  the  very  needs  of  his 
country  and  the  strong  rush  of  God's  providential  lead- 
ings made  the  more  firm  and  resolute  and  persistent 
mind  soon  the  master-spirit  of  the  struggle  of  the  land, 
and,  w'e  may  say,  of  the  age. 

It  was  an  age  Avhich  had  recent  and  sad  experience  of 
the  need  of  resisting  oppression,  and  that  form  of  tyranny 
especially  which  leaned  on  spiritual  despotism.  There 
were  men  living  and  acting  who  had  the  Spanish  Ar- 
mada among  the  recollections  of  their  childhood.  Its 
memory  was  about  Hobbes,  the  child  of  a  j)arish  minis- 
ter, in  his  nursery.  The  projects  that  had  been  foiled 
in  the  detection  and  failure  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  were 
among  the  youthful  memories  that  shaped  these  men's 
judgments  of  contemporary  political  movements.  They 
did  not  mean  that  in  their  time  the  funeral  pyres  of 
Smithfield  should  be  rekindled  ;  or  that  the  St.  Barthol- 
omew massacre  in  France,  Avhich  the  Roman  Pontiff  had 
hailed  with  so  wild  an  exultation;  or  the  terrible  butch- 
eries of  Alva  in  Holland,  the  smoke  and  gore  of  which 
had  chilled  each  Protestant  heart  through  all  Europe. — 
should  be  re-enacted  upon  their  own  quiet  island.  Whilst 
they  in  England  and  Scotland  were  in  collision  with  their 

ill-advised  king,  there  occurred,  in  the  sister  and  depend- 
20  « 


234  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

ent  island  of  Ireland,  the  terrible  Irish  massacre,  like  an 
outburst  of  hidden  volcanic  fire.  To  relieve  its  sufferers, 
the  affrighted  and  plundered  survivors,  contributions 
were  raised  not  only  in  England,  but  in  Protestant 
Holland.  Before  the  memory  of  that  dread  scene  of 
slaughter  and  conflagration  passed  from  the  minds  of 
Englishmen  came  the  news,  when  the  Protector  had  now 
established  his  power,  of  the  terrible  slaughter  of  the 
Waldensians  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont,  and  the  news 
also  of  its  awakening,  at  the  Sacred  City,  papal  exulta- 
tion. There  was  also  the  well-known  fact,  that  some  of 
the  soldiery  whom  the  ruler  of  Savoy  used  in  butchering 
these  mountaineers  were  refugees  from  Ireland,  whom 
the  stern  measures  of  Cromwell  had  expatriated  when  he 
subdued  and  quelled  Ireland,  and  who  but  repeated  on 
the  mountain-sides  and  in  the  vales  of  Piedmont  atrocities 
which  they  had  first  practised  on  their  own  Protestant 
countrymen  at  home.  Cromwell's  interposition,  through 
Milton,  his  foreign  secretar}^,  was  prompt,  decisive,  and 
effectual.  Savoy,  though  a  distant  power,  had  learned 
that  the  Protector  was  not  a  ruler  with  whom  they  could 
presume  to  be  dallying  or  evasive,  and  the  terrible  mas- 
sacre was  stayed  from  policy,  Avhen  conscience  had  been 
ineffectual  to  prevent  its  first  inauguration. 

A  people  thus  schooled  by  burning  memories  to  a  dis- 
trust, intense  and  deep,  of  papal  domination,  leaned  earn- 
estly to  the  study  of  that  Bible  whose  general  use  by  the 
laity  the  papal  see  had  so  restricted,  discouraged,  and  for- 
bidden. They  had  seen  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  long  a  trusted  counsellor  of  their  King  Charles  in  the 


THE   COMMONWEALTH    AND    PrvOTECTORATE.        235 

afTairs  of  both  England  and  Scotland,  recognize,  though 
declining,  the  offer  of  a  cardinal's  hat  from  the  Roman 
Pontiff.  They  had  felt,  on  their  pastors  or  their  own 
households  or  persons,  the  heavy  hand  of  priestly  power 
as  it  came  down  on  the  Puritan,  and  in  the  commonalty 
alike  of  field  and  of  camp  the  cause  of  Puritanism  and 
national  freedom  became  speedily  and  almost  inseparably 
identified. 

Holland,  again,  that  had,  by  such  prodigies  of  heroism, 
valor,  and  martyr  endurance,  achieved  independence  of 
Spain,  the  greatest  of  European  monarchies,  had  been,  in 
the  days  of  the  prelatical  oppression  upon  British  soil,  to 
many  a  fugitive  both  of  English  and  Scottish  origin,  a 
place  of  shelter  and  of  residence  more  or  less  prolonged. 
Its  free  institutions,  its  commerce,  its  industries,  were 
admired  and  emulated.  The  first  colonies  of  some  of 
our  New  England  settlements  had  found  such  shelter  in 
Holland  before  turning  the  prows  of  their  vessels  to  this 
A\'estern  wilderness.  So  many  a  Scottish  Presbyterian, 
Avho  purposed  returning  to  Ins  own  Scottish  home,  had 
his  acquaintance  and  his  education  in  those  free  prov- 
inces. Our  early  English  Baptists  had,  in  like  manner, 
some  of  them,  found  the  country,  of  such  large  commerce 
and  such  open-handed  hospitality,  their  temporary  home. 
Soldiery  and  peasantry  in  Britain,  then  loving  and  read- 
ing their  Bibles,  had  a  natural  proclivity  to  remember 
and  to  esteem  their  fellow-Protestants  speaking  a  kindred 
tongue,  but  dwelling  in  Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  Leyden, 
or  Delft.  Dreading  the  Spaniard,  hating  Rome,  and  cher- 
ishing freedom,  it  was  an   inevitable  tendency  tliat  the 


236  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

sympathies  of  Protestant  Britain  should  flow  very  nat- 
urally toward  the  other  land,  with  which  they  were  as 
neighbors  so  contiguous,  and  Avhere  Protestantism  had 
its  free  Bible  and  its  free  churches. 

Baxter  and  Evelyn,  authorities  entirely  distinct  in 
their  alliances  and  surroundings,  join  in  attesting  the 
early  and  rapid  diffusion  of  Baptist  sentiments  among 
the  armies  of  Cromwell  and  his  fellow-warriors,  and  the 
influence  which  the  views  of  this  denomination  soon  at- 
tained with  the  ruling  powers  of  the  time.  Baxter  regret- 
ted, that  he  had  not  earlier  accepted  the  apiJointment  of 
army-chaplain,  that  he  might  thus  have  Avithstood  the 
spread  of  denominational  views  which  he  held  erroneous. 
When,  after  delay,  he  joined  the  troops,  he  found  his  Avay 
hedged,  and  his  efficiency  less  than  the  good  man  hoped 
it  would  be. 

There  were  men  among  the  clergy  of  that  day,  and  ed- 
ucated in  the  English  universities,  who,  when  the  repres- 
sive energies  of  the  old  prelacy  were  withdrawn  and  their 
studies  in  the  Scriptures  Avere  no  longer  thus  circum- 
scribed by  the  fear  of  episcopal  severities,  joined  them- 
selves to  the  Baptists.  Cox,  son  of  a  bishop,  was  such  a 
one.  Tombes  of  Bewdley,  the  learned  antagonist  of  Bax- 
ter on  the  question  of  Infant  Baptism,  was  another.  Sam- 
uel Fisher,  such  a  clergyman,  originally  of  the  Established 
Church,  published  a  folio  volume  against  Infant  Baptism. 
He  afterward  went  over  from  the  Baptists  to  the  Quakers, 
with  whom  he  became  a  zealous  laborer  by  the  tongue 
and  from  the  press.  Hansard  Knollys  was  another.  One 
of  the  Dykes,  a  man  whose  printed  books,  as  well  as  his 


TJIE    CO.^IMOX WEALTH    AND    PROTECTORATE.        237 

preachings,  were  highly  valued  by  the  pious— one  of  his 
volumes  being  translated  into  the  German— was  another 
such  accession  to  our  body. 

But  in  that  day  of  religious  fervor  and  activity,  the 
pulpit  was  often  occupied  by  those  not  exclusively  and 
constantly  devoted  to  the  preacher's  work.  The  laity 
thought  it  not  unfitting,  often,  to  occupy  the  sacred  desk, 
if  thus  the  lack  of  a  fiiithful  ministry  might  be  supplied. 
And  there  were  among  the  laymen  uniting  themselves  to 
our  body  some  of  loftiest  worth  and  high  and  varied  ac- 
complishments. Colonel  Hutchinson,  himself  a  man  of 
education  and  intelligence  and  varied  culture,  became, 
with  his  wife,  Lucy,  author  of  one  of  the  best  biographies 
of  the  times,  a  convert  to  our  denominational  tenets.  So 
Robert  Lilburn,  another  colonel,  brother  of  the  fearless 
and  irrepressible  John  Lilburn,  the  free-born  Englishman, 
as  the  latter  called  himself,  was  a  Baptist.  General  Lam- 
bert, nearly  related  to  Cromwell  himself,  is  represented  by 
many  Avriters  of  the  times  as  being  also  a  Baptist. 

But  the  man  in  the  ranks  of  the  army  who  was  most 
prominent  as  a  Baptist  was  General  Thomas  Harrison, 
called  by  Andrew  Bisset,  a  living  writer  in  the  history  of 
those  times,  "  though  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  honest, 
not  one  of  the  wisest,  of  men."  Such  was  his  ardor  and 
enthusiasm  in  all  that  he  undertook,  that  Baxter  speaks 
of  him  as  being  "of  excellent  natural  parts  for  affection 
and  oratory,  but  not  well  seen  [i.  e.  judicious,  as  the  phrase 
then  meant]  in  the  principles  of  his  religion ;  of  a  san- 
guine complexion ;  naturally  of  such  a  vivacity,  hilaritv, 
and  alacrity  as  another  man  hath  when  he  hath  drunk  a 


238  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

cup  too  much."  Baxter  himself  had  heard  Harrison 
once  in  a  battle,  when  the  enemy  began  to  flee,  Avith  a 
loud  voice  break  forth  into  the  praises  of  God  "  with 
fluent  exj)ression,"  says  Baxter,  '"  as  if  he  had  been  in  a 
rapture."  When  King  Charles  was  at  Hurst  Castle  in 
December,  1648,  and  learned  that  troops  had  been  sent 
by  Parliament  to  bring  him  to  London,  and  with  Harri- 
son in  command  of  them,  the  king  was  in  apprehension, 
from  what  he  had  heard  of  the  major's  enthusiasm,  that 
Harrison  might  be  his  assassin.  But  on  the  road  the 
king  was  struck  with  the  appearance  of  the  commander 
of  the  military  squadron,  "gallantly  mounted,  with  a 
velvet  montero  on  his  head,  a  new  buff  coat,  and  a  crim- 
son silk  scarf  around  his  waist."  The  king  in  passing 
gave  a  military  salute,  graciously  acknowledged,  and  was 
surprised  soon  to  learn  that  this  was  the  dreaded  Major 
Harrison.  The  king  said,  "  he  looked  a  real  soldier,  and 
if  there  might  be  trust  in  faces,  was  not  the  man  to  be  an 
assassin."  Standing  before  the  fire,  at  the  mansion  where 
they  rested,  in  a  crowded  room,  the  king  singled  out  Har- 
rison, and  drew  him  into  conversation  for  half  an  hour. 
Harrison  indignantly  disavowed  all  treacherous  intents, 
but  frankly  added,  that,  before  the  law,  great  and  small 
must  be  alike  subject.  A  good  man — Newcome — after- 
ward blessed  God  for  having  missed  Harrison's  acquaint- 
ance, for  he,  Newcome,  had  heard  of  him  as  "  a  most  in- 
sinuating man,"  but  a  very  decided  Separatist,  who  might 
have  won  Newcome  to  the  same  views.  He,  with  Hutch- 
inson, was  among  the  Baptists  as  judges  of  the  king,  sign- 
ing the  warrant  for  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  after  his 


THE   COMMONWEALTH    AND    PROTECTORATE.        239 

trial.  When  Oliver  Cromwell  broke  up  the  Rump  Parlia- 
ment, Harrison  accompanied  and  aided  him.  After  sit- 
ting silent  and  listening  to  the  debates  of  the  body,  the 
great  general  whispered  to  his  friend  Harrison,  "This  is  the 
time;  I  must  do  it."  Harrison  took  Lenthall,  the  speaker 
of  the  Parliament,  by  the  hand,  and  led  him  from  the 
speaker's  chair.  Looking  on  the  mace,  which  lay  on  a 
table,  the  emblem  of  the  speaker's  dignity,  Cromwell 
exclaimed,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  this  fool's  bauble  ? 
Here ;  take  it  away,"  said  he,  turning  to  give  it  to  a  mus- 
keteer; and  then  the  sturdy  Protector,  locking  the  door, 
put  the  key  in  his  pocket.  Benjamin  West,  the  Amer- 
ican painter,  has  made  this  the  subject  of  one  of  his  pic- 
tures, which  has  also  been  engraved.  When  Cromwell, 
with  his  twelve  thousand  men,  set  sail  to  avenge  in  Ire- 
land the  atrocious  massacre,  the  army  observed  a  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer  before  embarkation.  GofFe,  the  regi- 
cide, afterward  a  refugee  in  Connecticut,  and  Harrison 
and  Cromwell,  each,  after  prayer  b}^  ministers,  expounded 
certain  portions  of  Scripture  that  seemed  pertinent  to  the 
occasion.  It  was  by  this  expedition  of  Cromwell,  which 
was  so  effective,  that  the  Rebellion  was  permanently  put 
down ;  and  to  this  day,  in  remembrance  of  its  stern  effect- 
iveness, the  Irish  Catholics  have  the  phrase,  to  express 
terrible  indignation,  "  The  curse  of  Cromwell  be  on  you !" 
As  Carlyle  says  of  that  expedition,  "  Cromwell  descended 
on  Ireland  like  the  Hammer  of  Thor.  He  smote  the  land 
once,  never  to  be  reunited  against  him  any  more." 

Besides  Hutchinson's  and  Harrison's  signatures  to  the 
death-sentence  of  Charles  I.,  it  has  also  that  of  Deane, 


240  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

one  of  Cromwell's  favorite  officers,  wliom  a  descendant  of 
Deane  in  his  recent  biography  of  the  admiral  represents 
as  also  a  Baptist.  His  master,  Cromwell,  gave  him  a 
command  in  Scotland,  where  his  influence  in  preserving 
peace  and  order  was  marked  and  abiding.  He  was  pas- 
sionately attached  to  the  person  and  interests  of  Crom- 
well— more  so  than  some  other  Baptists. 

Harrison,  with  others  of  these,  leaned  either  to  a  reg- 
ular republic,  or  hoped  a  return  of  Christ  to  the  earth  in 
his  millennial  kingdom,  and  he  became  disaffected  to- 
ward the  Protector  on  his  assumption  of  supreme  power. 
Cromwell  seems  to  have  dreaded  as  well  as  respected  him ; 
and  among  the  last  measures  of  Cromwell's  life  was  an 
order  for  the  imprisonment  of  his  old  fellow-soldier,  now 
an  opponent  of  his  sovereign  domination.  At  the  return 
of  the  king,  Charles  II.,  Harrison  was  brought  to  trial 
with  circumstances  of  great  indignity  and  brutal  violence, 
but  he  preserved  a  heroic  serenity,  and  suffered  with  an 
attachment  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  religious  and  polit- 
ical, for  which  we  may  well  cherish  and  honor  the  mem- 
ory of  this  illustrious  Baptist. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  to  the  honor  of  his  tolerant 
spirit,  though  himself  an  outspoken  Baptist,  he  had  as 
one  of  his  military  chaplains  a  Mr.  Joseph  Whiston,  "  a 
very  pious  man,"  as  his  nephew,  the  celebrated  William 
Whiston,  declares,  "  but  who  wrote  several  books  for  In- 
fant Baptism."  The  soul-liberty  for  which  Roger  Wil- 
liams contended,  this  Baptist  commander  recognized  in 
his  subordinate  chaplain,  a  Poedobaptist,  and  yet  not,  by 
his   rejection   of  Baptist  views,  forfeiting  the   confidence 


THE   COMMOXAVEALTH   AND   PROTECTORATE.        241 

and  regard  of  his  superior  officer,  so  staunch  a  Baptist 
himself. 

In  the  fleet  of  England,  which  became  on  the  sea  as 
celebrated  for  its  valor  and  prowess  as  Avas  the  army  on 
land,  was  a  large  sprinkling  of  Baptist  officers.  When 
Montague,  afterward  made  Lord  Sandwich,  was  put  in 
charge  of  tliis  navy  by  the  party  who  were  projecting 
measures  for  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  he  took  pains, 
as  his  secretary,  Pepys,  assures  us,  to  remove  "  the  Ana- 
baptist captains"  quietly,  as  far  as  he  could,  dreading  their 
especial  and  instinctive  opposition  to  the  measure.  But 
the  chief  in  sway  of  the  body  of  the  fleet  was  Vice-Admiral 
Sir  John  Lawson,  a  Regular  Baptist,  who  had  arisen  by 
merit  and  valor  from  a  low  position.  Wild,  a  clerical 
poet  and  satirist  of  the  times,  alludes  to  his  as  a  formid- 
able influence,  to  be  feared  in  withstanding  Monck's  and 
resisting  the  return  of  the  Stuarts.  But  Lawson's  judg- 
ment was  in  favor  of  the  Restoration,  and  he  brought  over 
the  fleet,  as  did  Monck  the  army.  Clarendon,  the  his- 
torian, and  long  the  chief  statesman,  of  Charles  II.,  speaks 
of  Lawson  as  a  very  able  and  brave  man,  though,  as  he 
says,  "  a  mere  sea-dog "  in  the  roughness  of  his  habits, 
but  of  eminent  judgment  in  the  conduct  of  the  navy. 
He  was  the  real  chief  in  a  great  engagement  at  sea  in 
June,  1665,  in  which  the  Dutch  admiral  Opdam  was 
blown  up,  and  Van  Tromp,  another  of  the  greatest  offi- 
cers of  Hojland,  compelled  to  retire,  a  great  number  of 
the  Dutch  vessels  being  destroyed.  Lawson  received  a 
wound,  which  compelled  his  withdrawal  from  the  deck 

and  command ;  and  the  Duke  of  York,  the  nominal,  be- 
21  Q 


242  LECTUEES   OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

coming  the  real,  commander,  the  fight  was  broken  off,  as 
some  thinlc  cravenly,  and  the  victor}'^,  though  a  very  great 
one,  was  prevented  from  reaching  a  crushing  complete- 
ness. Carried  home  to  England,  his  wound  proved  fatal. 
Aspiring  to  a  high  marriage  for  one  of  his  daughters 
where  her  affections  had  been  engaged,  he  raised  a  por- 
tion, as  he  said  to  his  friend  Clarendon  on  his  deathbed, 
which  would  leave  his  widow  and  remaining  daughters 
destitute ;  and  the  dying  warrior  besought  for  them  a 
pension.  Clarendon  secured  it  as  long  as  he  was  in 
power;  but  being  himself  displaced  not  long  after,  the 
family  Avere  probably  deprived  of  it.  Clarendon,  no  friend 
of  Baptists,  is  large  in  his  praises,  declares  him  to  have 
shared  in  the  great  victories  of  Blake,  which  still  remain 
among  the  highest  naval  illustrations  of  British  valor, 
and  pronounces  him,  withal,  "  one  of  the  most  modest 
of  men." 

The  Bible  enumerates  "  the  honorable  women "  who 
clung  to  the  apostles  and  the  gospel.  It  is  not  unfitting 
to  allude  to  some  of  the  same  sex  who,  in  these  days 
of  conflict,  adhered  to  our  denominational  confession. 
Chambers,  in  his  Domestic  Annals  of  Scotland,  speaks  of  a 
Lady  Wallace,  baptized  when  the  army  of  Cromwell  came 
into  Scotland ;  and  on  our  shores  you  Avill  remember  a 
Lady  Moody  of  our  faith,  settled  on  Long  Island  Sound 
in  the  early  days  of  the  government  of  Stuyvesant  over 
New  Amsterdam.  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  daughter  of  Sir 
Allen  Apsley,  the  lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  stood  not 
alone  among  the  cultured  women  of  rank  who  joined 
themselves  to  our  churches. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH   AND   PROTECTORATE.       243 

Among  the  great  preachers  of  the  age  was  Vavasor 
Powell,  called,  for  his  zeal  and  energy,  the  Apostle  of 
Wales,  a  staunch  Baptist.  Kifiin,  one  of  their  preachers 
in  London,  was  a  wealthy  merchant  as  well.  But  from 
some  cause,  Kiffin,  though  a  good  man,  seems  to  have 
been  somewhat  disaffected  toward  his  greater  contem- 
porary, the  illustrious  author  of  the  rUgrimi's  Progress, 
John  Bunyan.  Two  of  Kiffin's  grandsons,  young  men 
of  piety,  took  part  in  the  ill-advised  rising  in  favor  of  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth,  and  were  among  the  victims  of  Jef- 
freys. When  James  II.  found  his  Protestant  subjects 
alienated  from  him,  he  endeavored  to  enlist  Kiffin,  then 
aged,  in  his  favor  by  summoning  the  old  afflicted  mer- 
chant and  pastor  to  court ;  but  Kiffin  alluded  frankly  to 
the  terrible  blow  suffered  in  the  death  of  his  grandsons, 
the  Hewletts.  The  stolid  monarch  proposed  to  find,  as  he 
said,  "  a  plaister  for  that  sore ;"  but  the  speech  was  as 
hard  as  the  nature  of  the  unhappy  king  and  the  heart 
of  his  ruthless  judge.  Soon  deserted  by  his  own  daugh- 
ters, Mary  and  Anne,  the  wretched  king  may  have 
learned  at  length  to  sympathize  with  Kiffin  in  some 
incompetent,  insufficient  fashion.  "My  own  children 
have  forsaken  me,"  said  plaintively  the  saddened  but 
unrelenting  tyrant. 

The  relation  of  the  Quakers  to  the  Baptists  was  in  the 
age  of  the  later  Stuarts  close,  though  not  always  friendly, 
and  at  times  fiercely  hostile.  George  Fox,  their  founder,  is 
said  to  have  had  an  uncle  who  was  a  Baptist.  Many  of 
his  (Fox's)  early  associates  had  left  the  Baptists  to  join 
the   new   body.     Tallack,  in   our   own   day,  an   English 


244  LECTUEES  ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Quaker,  has  written  a  volume  of  interest  on  this  subject, 
but  his  book  does  by  no  means  exhaust  the  topic.  Bar- 
clay, in  a  posthumous  volume  just  leaving  the  press,  has 
traced  the  connection  of  the  founder  of  his  body  with  the 
Mennonites  of  Holland,  our  spiritual  kindred  in  the 
Provinces.  Bunyan  eagerly,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  impugned  these  principles,  as  did  Roger  Wil- 
liams on  this  shore;  and  the  volumes  of  both  need  to  be 
consulted  in  presenting  the  divergencies  that  widely  sep- 
arate us  from  them  in  our  views  of  the  authority  of  the 
written  word,  of  the  permanence  of  the  ordinances,  and 
of  the  witness  and  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Congregationalist,  Presbyterian,  and  Baptist  and  Quaker 
bravely  incurred  severest  persecution  from  the  Crown  and 
the  dominant  church  in  fidelity  to  their  convictions. 
Charles  II.  had,  before  reaching  England,  in  his  Decla- 
ration of  Breda,  as  it  was  called,  pledged  himself  to 
measures  of  tolerance  and  gentleness.  These  engage- 
ments he  chose  to  neglect,  and  a  Parliament,  rampant 
in  its  opposition  to  the  Puritanism  that  had  ruled,  sup- 
ported and  enhanced  the  cruel  breach  of  compact. 

The  full  measure  of  guilty  intolerance  has  not  yet  been, 
perhaps  never  can  be  at  this  late  day,  presented ;  but  in 
pillories  where  sufferers  like  a  Keach  stood;  in  prisons 
where  inmates  like  a  Bunyan  toiled,  prayed,  wrote,  and 
preached,  and  where  a  Vavasor  Powell  and  a  De  Laune 
pined,  the  work  of  God  had  still  its  currency,  "a  fire 
shut  up"  that  was  not  yet  extinct,  though  Court  and  Par- 
liament and  Cabinet  hoped,  if  violence  and  fines  and  scorn 
and  threats  could  do  it,  that  there  should  be  an  end  of 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND   PROTECTORATE.        245 

dissent,  and  Puritanism  should  go  down  into  dishonored 
silence. 

It  was  not  to  be.  The  press  spoke  what  the  pulpit 
might  not.  And  to  the  honor  of  the  Quakers  it  should 
be  ever  recorded  that  their  meek,  multitudinous,  passive 
resistance  to  oppressive  edicts  finally  discouraged  and 
exhausted  an  intolerant  Court.  Quakerism  helped  to 
choke  the  prisons  of  England  to  repletion,  and-  to  drive 
jailers  and  judges  into  despair. 

When  James  shifted  his  policy  in  the  hope  of  building 
up  by  the  sovereign  j)Ower,  dispensing  with  the  persecut- 
ing laws,  his  claim  to  absolutism — such  as  his  grand- 
father, James  I.,  had  affected  and  illegally  claimed,  but 
which  Coke  and  Selden  had  resisted — and  expected  also, 
in  the  shadow  of  indulgence  granted  to  numerous  Non- 
conformists, to  bring  indulgence,  and  ultimately  power 
and  sovereignty,  to  the  fewer  Catholic  sufferers,  the  Non- 
conformists generally  discountenanced  measures  of  relief 
thus  brought  about  by  treading  down  law  and  the  power 
of  the  Parliament  enacting  law.  They  shrunk,  most  of 
them,  also  from  the  proffer  of  civil  and  municipal  em- 
ployment made  them  by  the  Court  to  entice  their  leading 
ministry  to  support  the  papal  policy  of  the  Crown.  Bun- 
yan  was  among  such  repudiators  of  court  patronage  and 
favor,  when  some  of  his  Baptist  brethren,  less  farsighted 
and  less  self-denying,  accepted  the  bribe  and  sustained 
the  insidious  schemes  of  the  monarch. 

From  Holland,  the  land  so  often  of  refuge  to  the  perse- 
cuted Presbyterian  of  Scotland  and  the  hunted  Puritan 

and  Baptist  of  England,  was  to  come,  in  God's  good  prov- 
21  *  . 


246  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

idence,  relief  for  English  religion  and  English  liberty.  The 
Prince  of  Orange,  William  III.,  the  son-in-law  of  James 
II.,  as  decided  a  Protestant  as  was  his  wife's  parent  a 
bigoted  Romanist,  commanded  and  accompanied  a  fleet 
which  brought  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  put  a  final 
period  to  the  Stuart  dynasty. 

Now,  in  that  very  Holland  whence  Christian  England 
thus  received  timely  and  effectually  relief,  God  had, 
during  this  Stuart  dynasty,  and  in  earlier  years  than 
theirs,  a  home  and  shelter  for  large  bodies  of  men,  in 
their  views  of  infant  baptism  sympathizing  with  us,  but 
in  their  views  of  war  and  oaths  approximating  the 
Quakers.  Among  them  were  men  of  eminence  for  genius 
and  for  literary  activity.  The  greatest  poet  of  Holland, 
Joost  van  Vondel,  whom  the  critics  of  that  country  put 
on  the  plane  of  rivalry  with  Milton  and  Shakespeare,  was 
a  Mennonite.  But  he  joined  that  portion  of  the  body 
sympathizing  with  the  Remonstrants,  or  Arminians ;  and 
after  a  time,  in  his  later  years,  he  went  over,  like  Dryden, 
his  British  contemporary,  to  the  Romanist  communion. 
The  Mennonites,  like  Menno  himself,  seem  to  have  regard- 
ed affusion  as  sufficient  baptism.  Martin  Duncan,  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  priest  in  Holland,  writing  against  Menno, 
in  his  lifetime  and  whilst  an  imperial  edict  set  a  price  on 
Menno's  head,  holds  language  intimating  that  such  affu- 
sion was,  in  Menno's  view,  sufficient.  But  there  were  Ana- 
baptists and  Anabaptist  martyrs  in  Holland  before  Menno 
himself  had  yet  left  the  Roman  communion.  That  some 
of  these  preferred  and  practised  immersion,  we  infer  from 
the  fact  that  their  persecutors,  who  delighted  in  fitting  the 


THE   COMJIONWEALTH   AXD   PROTECTORATE.        247 

penalty,  as  they  cruelly  judged  it,  to  the  fault,  put  many 
of  them  to  death  by  full  immersion,  swathing  the 
sufferers  in  large  sacks  which  confined  arms  and 
feet,  and  then  huddling  the  sacks  with  their  living  con- 
tents into  huge  puncheons,  where  the  victims  were 
drowned.  So  the  Swiss  Anabaptists,  some  of  them  at 
least,  immersed  in  rivers.  This  appears  from  the  work 
Sabbata  of  Knertz,  a  contemporary  Lutheran.  The 
Dunkers,  too,  on  our  shores,  who  were  driven  from 
a  Swiss  or  German  source,  are  immersionists  in  their 
own  fashion. 

A  small,  but  in  its  day  a  very  distinguished,  branch  of 
the  Mennonites,  too,  were  on  principle  immersionists. 
These  were  the  Collegiants,  or  Rhynsburgers.  Now, 
amongst  them,  was  Conrad  van  Beuningen,  in  his  youth  a 
teacher  among  them.  He  retained  his  principles,  though 
devoting  himself  at  the  call  of  his  country  to  political 
life  as  an  ambassador.  With  the  Oxenstierns  of  Sweden, 
and  the  Turennes  of  France,  and  the  Stuarts  of  England, 
he  was  brought  into  personal  relations.  Louis  XIV.  had 
a  dislike  to  him,  from  his  influence  and  his  strong  Protes- 
tantism ;  but  he  Avas  propitiated  on  the  personal  approach 
of  the  eminent  diplomatist.  It  was  said  of  him  by  his 
admiring  countrymen,  that  he  carried  the  keys  of  the 
Cabinets  of  all  Europe  with  him.  A  Paedobaptist  theolo- 
gian and  historian  of  his  own  country,  wonders  at  and 
compassionates  this  great  statesman,  that  he  so  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  prophecy.  For  with  all  his  polit- 
ical greatness,  he  was,  like  Napier  of  Scotland  and  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  of  England,  a  reverent  student  of  the  pro- 


248  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

phetic  Scriptures.  He  reached  an  advanced  age,  but  from 
unhappy  investments  he  is  said  to  have  spent  his  last 
days  in  poverty. 

In  times  later  than  these,  in  the  following  century,  this 
same  community  of  Holland  immersionists  received  the 
accession  of  Wagenaar,  one  of  the  historians  of  Holland, 
whose  work,  in  numerous  volumes,  is  still  consulted.  The 
body  has  nearly  ceased  to  exist.  Some  funds  for  orphans 
that  it  possessed  are  still  aj)plied  by  the  other  branch  of 
the  Mennonites  to  youths,  who  have  the  choice  of  baptism 
by  the  method  of  the  Collegiants  or  that  of  the  Men- 
nonites. 

Thus,  in  people  so  distinct  in  some  periods  of  their 
history,  and  so  closely  allied  at  other  eras,  as  the  nations 
of  Holland  and  Britain,  it  has  been  seen  that  God's  free 
Bible,  in  the  hands  of  a  free  church,  has  not  been  without 
its  approximating  effects  in  the  judgments  to  which  it  has 
led  its  students. 

Among  the  two  bodies,  however,  Eationalism,  to  which 
we  have  before  alluded,  has  alike  written  itself  the  waster 
and  the  overthrower.  The  older  Mennonites  of  Holland 
have  become  greatly  shrivelled  in  numbers,  as  compared 
with  their  ancestors ;  and  some  of  their  scholars,  amongst 
others  Halbertsma,  a  Holland  scholar,  personally  known 
to  Southey,  and  a  Mennonite  minister,  have  written,  as 
not  long  since  the  Quakers  of  England  in  regard  to  a 
like  diminution  in  their  own  body  also  did,  to  inquire 
into  the  causes  of  this  loss  of  their  old  hold  on  the  na- 
tional heart. 

The  General  Baptists  of  England — a  body  which  in  the 


THE   COMMOXWEALTH    AND   PROTECTORATE.        249 

days  of  the  Restoration  had  a  scholar  and  pastor  like 
Grantham,  author  of  a  folio  volume  on  religious  doctrine 
and  ritual,  and  in  the  main  evangelical — passed  over  after 
the  da3's  of  Grantham  to  Arianism  and  Socinianism  ;  and 
though  having  scholars  among  them  like  James  Foster 
and  Toulmin,  their  diminution  was  sure  and  irremedi- 
able. It  was  only  as  they  had  raised  up  among  them  men 
comparatively  ignorant,  but  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  like  Dan  Taylor  and  the  late  John  G.  Pike  and 
Amos  Sutton,  that  the  work  of  disintegration  was  arrested. 
An  open  Bible  and  a  free  church  contain  the  elements  of 
success  whilst  men  consult  and  invoke  the  Holy  Spirit — 
not  when  they  neglect  and  provoke  and  repel  him. 

It  is  in  the  character  of  a  people  like  the  English  and 
like  the  Americans  that  the  play  of  such  influences  is 
most  distinctly  visible.  Give  to  a  solitary  reader — give 
to  a  community  of  religious  worshippers — tlie  Bible,  but 
Avith  the  continual  inculcation  that  his  own  reason  is  to 
such  student  and  such  assembly  paramount  as  author- 
ity over  every  and  any  other  spirit ;  let  a  people,  however 
cultured,  erudite,  and  keen-sighted,  learn  to  proclaim  the 
strength  of  their  own  wisdom,  to  dictate  to  the  Most  High 
the  chapters  and  contents  of  his  own  oracles;  every  man 
becomes,  as  Coleridge  expresses  it — once  himself  infected 
with  the  error,  but  happily  learning  earnestly  to  deplore 
it — "  every  man  becomes  his  own  revelation."  "  If  the 
light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,"  said  the  most  gracious 
and  the  most  wise  of  teachers,  "  how  great  is  that  dark- 
ness." 

Into  such  an  error  it  was  that  the  princely  intellect  of 


250  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Milton  seems  to  have  been  beguiled  and  precipitated. 
He  who  in  his  early  days  as  a  schoolmaster  had  led  his 
students  to  the  small  compend  of  Ames  on  Theology, 
thoroughly  Puritan  and  evangelical,  became  apparently 
in  his  later  days  a  student  and  proselyte  of  the  Socinian 
works  i3rinted  in  Holland,  and  afterward  gathered  there 
into  the  large  and  bulky  folios  of  the  Fratres  Poloni.  Re- 
jecting the  full  deity  of  our  Lord,  he  yet  held  our  views 
of  baptism,  though  he  seems  to  have  regarded  the  use  of 
flowing,  living  water  as  essential  to  the  just  administra- 
tion of  the  ordinance.  His  third  wife,  who  long  survived 
him,  returned  after  his  death  to  her  native  place  in 
Cheshire  and  joined  the  Baptist  church  there,  the  pastor 
of  which  jjreached  her  funeral  sermon,  which  he  also 
printed. 

Macaulay  made  the  remark,  that  England,  in  the  days 
of  the  Stuarts,  produced  but  two  great  works  of  creative 
genius;  the  one  was  the  Paradise  Lost,  the  other  was  the 
Pilgrmi's  Progress.  It  is  matter  of  honest  exultation  and 
of  devout  gratitude  to  God  that  Bunyan  was,  with  his 
brilliant  genius,  thoroughly  evangelical.  As  to  Milton, 
we  accept  his  attestation  as  a  scholar  to  the  Bible  evidence 
for  immersion  as  baptism  and  for  the  regenerate  as  its 
proper  recipients ;  but  with  his  aberrations  of  doctrine 
we  have  no  sympathy  more  than  with  similar  errors  of 
Arian  character  in  that  great  philosopher,  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton, who  yet  so  honored  our  denominational  fidelity  to 
the  ordinances  and  church  polity  of  the  New  Testament 
as  to  believe  us,  with  his  own  favored  and  favorite  Ari- 
ans,  one  of  the  two  witnesses  described  in  the  book  of 


THE   CX)MMON WEALTH    AND   PROTECTORATE.        251 

the  Apocalypse,  loyal  whilst  Christendom  wavered  and 
swerved. 

No  force  of  language  can  be  too  strong  to  deplore  any 
disposition  that  may  be  displayed  to  ignore  or  to  super- 
sede the  indispensable  energy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  neces- 
sary to  the  true  life  and  the  continuous  growth  of  the 
Christian  Church.  The  Christ  who  went  up  to  heaven,  by 
charge  august  as  aught  belonging  to  so  vast  and  wide  and 
far-descended  kingdom  must  be — by  charge  emphatic 
and  deliberate — commended  the  church — about  to  be 
seemingly  widowed,  when  his  bodily  presence  should 
be  withdrawn  from  her — to  the  care  and  custody  of 
the  Paraclete.  "  He  shall  receive  of  mine  and  shall 
show  it  unto  you.  All  things  that  the  Father  hath 
are  mine;  therefore,  said  I,  that  he  shall  take  of  mine 
and  show  it  unto  you."  Pentecost  was,  as  he  said,  in 
his  solemn  and  final  leavetaking,  to  precede  the  set- 
ting out  of  his  apostles  on  their  errand  of  evangeliza- 
tion to  all  the  earth.  And  all  the  earth  combined,  apart 
from  and  in  forgetfulness  of  that  Paraclete,  can  only  suc- 
ceed in  depraving  the  evangel  and  in  cancelling  the  apos- 
tolic commission.  Its  colleges  cannot  supply  his  place. 
Its  sciences,  be  they  in  their  topic  material  or  immaterial, 
cannot,  under  the  conduct  of  any  finite  mind,  however 
brilliant,  acute,  or  persistent,  afiect  to  ignore  him,  the 
Original,  the  Infinite,  the  Divine  ]\Iind. 

Pascal,  one  of  the  loftiest  intellects  of  the  race,  ever 
gratefully  acknowledged  the  justice  and  value  of  a  lesson 
set  him  by  his  father,  that  the  things  of  religion  have  an 
evidence  of  their   own.     The  Divine  Spirit  speaking  to 


252  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

man's  own  spirit  and  conscience  is  such  sufficient  and  is 
such  ever-near  evidence. 

In  the  training  of  royal  pupils,  it  was  one  of  the  weak 
indulgences  of  ancient  times  that  a  lad  brought  up  with 
the  young  prince  was  made  to  bear  vicarious  punishment 
whenever  the  kingly  nursling  was  disobedient  or  heedless 
or  wilful.  A  favorite  of  the  unhappy  Charles  I.  was  Sir 
George  Murray,  who  had  thus  in  the  days  of  the  nursery 
and  the  boyhood  been,  as  it  was  called,  "  the  whipping- 
boy"  to  Prince  Charles,  taking  for  his  own  palm  or 
shoulders  the  punishment  due  to  the  recreant  prince.  In 
our  own  times  we  hear  of  men  of  science  who  summon 
up  the  august  form  of  John  Milton  to  serve  as  whipping- 
boy  for  the  prophet  Moses.  But  is  the  scandal  saved  or 
the  popularity  honestly  cherished  by  resorting  to  such 
methods?  If  Moses  be  in  fault,  let  Science  with  a  firm 
fidelity,  like  that  of  the  old  Christian  martyrs,  bring 
Moses  to  the  scourge.  But  let  it  be  also  remembered  that, 
in  the  judgment  of  the  Christian  community,  there  is 
truth  in  the  saj'ing  of  the  Judge,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me." 

Cite  Moses  or  cite  Paul,  and  make  the  scourge  fall  on 
the  beloved  disciple  John  as  well.  But  we  are  persuaded 
that,  as  it  has  been  found  true  of  ancient  times,  so  it  will 
be  found  in  later  ages  also,  the  Author  of  the  volume  will 
put  in,  by  his  providence,  an  appearance,  when  the  cita- 
tion is  served,  on  behalf  of  the  scribe  of  his  own  edicts 
and  the  penman  of  the  Oracles  which  the  Unerring  dic- 
tated and  the  Unslumbering  guards. 


THE   COMMONWEALTH   AND   PROTECTORATE.        253 

In  the  days  on  which  we  have  dwelt,  Spain  had  little 
of  the  Bible,  and  France  cared  to  have  little.  Instead 
of  the  ancient  volume,  came  the  canon  and  the  missal, 
the  index  of  prohibited  books,  and  the  lives  and  legends 
of  the  saints.  Was  it  for  the  gain  of  the  race  and  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  land  ? 

France,  in  later  days,  had  comparatively  abolished  the 
Bible.  Did  the  creed  of  the  Savoyard  vicar,  as  Rousseau 
eloquently  indited  it,  and  the  great  Dncyclopsedia  of  Dide- 
rot, amply  supply  the  lack  ? 

England  and  Holland  in  their  best  days  grew  great  and 
kept  their  greatness  by  the  Bible.  Man  needs  God  more 
than  God  needs  man. 

Each  epoch  of  culture  proclaims  the  truth.  England 
had  had  in  the  days  of  the  Lancaster  kings  the  proffer 
of  God's  book  by  Wyckliffe  and  his  Lollards.  Her  spurn- 
ing, as  a  government,  of  the  boon,  redounded  not  to  her 
freedom  or  order.  In  the  days  of  Edward  VI.,  she  had 
the  proffer  renewed.  The  martyrs  hailed  it  and  the  com- 
mon people,  but  the  nobles  and  the  sovereign  in  the  next 
disastrous  reign  spurned  it.  What  was  the  wail  of  the 
broken-hearted  Mary  over  the  loss  of  Calais  compared 
with  her  secret  sorrow  over  a  barren  marriage  and  a  love- 
less and  truant  husband  and  a  disaffected  people?  When, 
in  Elizabeth's  time,  the  renewed  proffer  met  with  a  more 
cordial  appreciation,  Sj^ain  felt  it,  and  all  Britain  felt  it, 
and  all  Europe  knew  of  it.  When,  in  the  days  of  James  I., 
Puritanism  appreciated  what  the  king  and  his  flatterers 
did  not,  with  these  Puritans  was  the  glory  and  the  future 
of  England's  prosperity.    When,  in  the  days  of  Charles  I., 

22 


254  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  conflict  began,  with  whom  was  the  manhood  of  the 
nation?  And,  in  all  after-times,  how  much  of  English 
liberty  is  traceable  to  the  resuscitation,  in  the  Eevolution 
of  1688,  of  very  much  which  had  been  undervalued  in 
the  Kestoration?  In  that  Restoration,  the  Reign  of  the 
Saints,  as  it  had  been  scoffingly  called,  had  been  replaced 
by  the  Reign  of  the  Harlots.  For  British  freedom  and 
honor,  what  would  have  been  the  auguries  had  the  policy 
of  Charles  II.  and  James  II.  prevailed,  and,  pensioned  by 
Louis  XIV.,  they  had  forced  on  England  the  absolutism 
which  he,  the  lord  paramount,  paying  their  pensions,  had 
forced  on  France  ? 

It  was  said,  when  referring  to  the  signal  forces  signifi- 
cant of  the  epoch  that  we  have  been  together  considering, 
that  in  it  three  great  principles  were  at  strife,  each  con- 
tending for  dominion  over  man's  conscience.  The  one  of 
these  was  the  paramount  authority  of  God's  Book,  a  free 
Bible,  open  for  all  to  consult,  apart  from  priest,  synod,  or 
pontiff,  and  which  every  man,  from  the  ruler  on  the 
throne  to  the  beggar  in  his  hovel,  was  alike  bound  to 
know,  to  heed,  and  to  obey.  The  motto  of  this  school, 
as  the  rule  inaugurating  all  inquiry  and  the  judgment 
closing  all  debate,  was,  "  It  is  written."  The  saying  of 
Chillingworth,  "  The  Bible,  the  Bible  only,  is  the  religion 
of  Protestants,"  was  the  shape  into  which  this  principle 
of  the  paramount  authority  of  Scripture  would  be  cast 
by  the  Latitudinarian  school,  of  which  Chillingworth 
was  an  ornament.  Our  own  churches,  in  that  age  as  in 
a  later,  would  regard  the  rule  as  more  justly  stated  and  as 
leading  to  safer  results  when  it  ran,  "  The  Bible,  as  read 


THE   COMMONWEALTH    AND    PROTECTORATE.        255 

by  the  light  of  that  Holy  Spirit  who  gave  it,  whose  aid 
it  bids  us  implore,  and  whose  influence  it  requires  us  to 
experience  and  to  reproduce."  Baptists  would,  therefore, 
condense  the  principle  of  religious  hope  and  the  law  of 
religious  life  into  somewhat  other  utterance.  The  proto- 
martyr  Stephen  Avitnessed  of  "  the  lively  oracles."  The 
disciples  of  Christ  must  be  men  divinely  taught,  person- 
ally regenerate,  and  then  grafted  by  ordinances  into 
churches.  "  A  living  spirit,  consulted  in  the  lively 
oracles,  and  radiated  through  living  churches,"  would 
present  the  Paraclete,  the  Bible,  and  the  Church,  as  the 
Baptists  held  them,  all  grouped  together  in  the  just  rela- 
tions of  the  Interpreter,  the  oracle,  and  the  disciple. 

In  following  out  these  views  of  Christian  doctrine,  our 
fathers  confronted  the  pillory  and  the  dungeon  and  the 
scaffold ;  but  persecution  neither  extinguished  their  testi- 
mony nor  exploded  their  influence.  Against  the  great 
principle  of  the  individual  right  to  study  the  Bible,  and 
to  carry  out,  into  independent  church  organization,  its 
requirements  as  to  Christian  duty  and  brotherhood,  there 
were  men,  many,  zealous,  and  influential,  whose  appeal 
was  to  the  examples  of  the  Fathers  and  to  sacred  usages 
inherited  from  hoar  antiquity.  They  relied  on  tradition 
and  pleaded  the  authority  of  the  collective  church  in  her 
councils.  They  cited  the  Fathers,  and  dwelt  on  the 
stories  of  the  saints,  and  argued  for  the  recognition  of  a 
visible  head  and  the  decisive  deliverances  of  a  personal 
arbiter.  But,  sifted  and  analyzed,  the  record  was  often 
found  of  imperfect  character  and  uncertain  date.  Gravest 
conclusions  were  built  on  "  overdated  rules,"  to   use  a 


256  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

phrase  of  Milton's.  The  opinions  and  divergent  traditions 
of  men  were  made  to  hide  and  choke  Serij)ture.  just  as 
the  Saviour  charged  the  Pharisees  with  hringing  into  dis- 
credit and  oblivion  the  Scriptures  of  the  prophets  by 
intervening  and  baseless  traditions  of  their  own  author- 
ship. Father  against  Father,  council  against  council,  the 
inquirer  was  left  in  a  maze  of  vague  hagiology  and  hurt- 
ling canons.  The  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  this  school, 
closely  analyzed,  was  found  to  be,  when  Sinai  and 
Patmos  had  thundered,  "  It  is  written,"  that  there  arose  a 
new  queen,  stately  and  imposing,  but  her  credentials, 
when  fully  investigated,  were  found  to  be,  "  It  is  rumored." 
The  Fathers  say  it  there;  the  councils  decree  it  thus;  the 
pontiffs,  by  the  ban  and  interdect.  Index  and  Inquisition, 
have  claimed  to  settle  creed  and  rite  finally  and  infallibly 
and  inevitably ;  but  history  says,  the  pontiffs  were  not  all 
good  men,  and  contradicted  each  other,  and  perverted 
Scripture,  and  sacrificed  true  martyrs.  And  if  many 
"  winds  of  doctrine  "  come  out  of  these  many  and  collid- 
ing authorities,  the  wise  inquirer  must  look  elsewhere  for 
the  refuge  of  his  soul  than  to  any  code  whose  vital  prin- 
ciple proves  to  be  at  last  the  practices,  the  judgments  and 
traditions  and  opinions,  of  men — "  It  is  rumored."  Man's 
sayings,  however  numerous,  may  not  supersede,  much 
less  contradict,  the  handiwork  of  Jehovah  as  he  sent, 
and  his  people  and  miracles  endorsed,  prophet,  apostle, 
and  evangelist. 

The  Stuarts  of  England  under  James  I.,  the  son  of  a 
Romanist  mother,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  intrigued  for  the 
alliance  of  Catholic  Spain,  then  in  colonies,  armies,  and 


THE   COMMONWEALTH    AND   PROTECTORATE.        257 

treasuries  and  territories,  tlie  leading  power  of  Europe. 
In  Charles  I.  they  were  united,  by  matrimonial  alliance, 
with  Catholic  France,  when  the  apostasy  of  Henry  IV. 
from  Protestantism  had  won  him  a  throne ;  but  his 
daughter  Henrietta  Maria  was  the  evil  counsellor  of  her 
husband,  a  kindly,  irresolute,  untruthful  man,  with  whom 
his  subjects  could  make  no  peace,  because  he  had  no 
sincerity.  Charles  II.,  reckless,  despotic,  though  court- 
eous, keen-sighted,  and  witty,  was  secretly  a  convert  to 
Catholicism,  a  j)ensioner  of  Catholic  France,  and  intrig- 
uing to  subvert  the  religion  and  freedom  of  his  British  sub- 
jects. His  brother  James,  of  a  more  rugged  and  open 
nature,  but  bigoted  and  avowed  in  his  attachment  to 
Catholicism,  took  precipitate  and  arbitrary  means  for  the 
introduction  of  despotism  and  the  restoration  of  Cathol- 
icism, that  forfeited  for  himself  and  for  his  dynasty  the 
throne  of  Britain. 

In  withstanding  the  attempts  of  this  family,  conscious 
or  unconscious,  indirect  or  avowed,  to  resuscitate  the  sway 
of  tradition  and  to  extrude  the  authority  of  Scripture 
onl)'',  the  patriots  of  Britain  were  called  to  strive  through 
an  entire  centur}'  as  against  immense  odds ;  but  surely  no 
man  can  say  that  the  fall  of  the  Stuart  dynasty  was  other 
than  a  blessing  for  the  cause  of  freedom  and  enlighten- 
ment, throughout  their  own  dominions  not  only,  but 
throughout  Europe  and  the  world. 

And  yet  the  two  principles,  Scripture  and  Tradition, 
were  not  the  only  winds  of  doctrine  that  blew  over  the 
nation  and  the  age.  There  was  in  the  minds  of  many 
potent  leaders  of  opinion,  not  only  those  filling  univer- 

22*  R 


258  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

sit}^  chairs  or  church  pulpits,  presiding  on  the  bench  of 
justice,  or  occupying  seats  at  the  cabinet,  or  swaying  the 
debates  of  Parhament,  but  those  found  in  studies  and  in 
libraries  haunted  by  quiet,  meditative  scholars,  a  third 
great  power.  It  was  a  philosophy  that,  with  many  a 
theologian  even,  shaped  and  colored  his  whole  system  of 
doctrine  and  determined  his  mode  of  expounding  Scrip- 
ture. It  was  his  controlling  philosophy.  Bacon  had  given 
a  new  and  wiser  direction  to  the  research  and  speculation 
of  men ;  but  since  his  time  had  arisen  a  Hobbes  in  Eng- 
land and  a  Spinoza  in  Holland,  whose  works  are  yet 
reproduced,  and  whose  influence  is  far  from  being  ex- 
hausted even  on  the  minds  of  our  own  age.  And  the 
scholars  of  some  of  these  men  claimed  for  the  reason  of 
man  a  power  to  set  aside  and  nullify  the  verities  of  Holy 
Writ.  Analyzed  to  the  last  results,  the  philosophy  would 
be  found  to  rest  on  the  opinions  of  some  single  strong 
mind,  plausibly  stated,  perchance,  and  by  a  throng  of 
eager  disciples  passionately  sustained.  Its  ultimate  es- 
sence would  be  "  It  is  Thought."  Arbitrar}^  power  in  the 
court  of  the  Stuarts  cited  the  principles  and  paraded  the 
maxims  of  Hobbes,  and  the  wild  Epicurean  riot  of  prof- 
ligate and  shameless  courtiers  grew  proud  and  defiant  on 
the  same  mental  sustenance.  If  an  obsequious  chaplain 
prescribed  passive  obedience  as  due  from  each  subject 
evermore  to  the  Crown,  a  bacchanal  horde  was  eager  to 
shout  its  implicit  faith  in  the  fashionable  skepticism  when 
a  crowd  of  ambitious  and  venal  converts  were  hurrying 
to  proclaim  implicit  faith  in  conclaves  and  pontiffs.  So 
the  Christian  thinkers  of  the  times  of  the  later  Stuarts, 


THE   COMMONWEALTH   AND   PROTECTORATE.        259 

when  maintaining  ancestral'  liberties  and  primitive,  scri])- 
tural  doctrine,  found  themselves  in  conflict,  direct  and 
unavoidable,  with  absolutism,  not  merely  in  the  state, 
but  with  absolutism  in  the  Romanist  Church  and  its 
priests,  and  with  skepticism,  now  Deistic,  now  Atheistic, 
now  Pantheistic,  on  the  part  of  those  who  exaggerated 
the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  human  reason. 

The  men  who  stood  by  the  strong  rock,  "It  is  written," 
and  believed  that  heaven  and  earth  might  pass  away 
sooner  than  one  sentence  thus  inscribed  by  the  Omniscient 
and  the  Unchangeable  Mind  of  the  One  Maker,  Redeemer, 
and  Judge,  had  to  watch  against  the  outnumbering  masses 
of  the  advocates  of  precedent,  authority,  and  tradition, 
who  cried,  "  It  is  rumored ;"  and,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
to  hold  their  position  as  against  a  less  numerous,  but  not 
less  hostile  and  less  effective,  host  of  foes,  who  exagger- 
ated the  powers  of  man's  mind  in  the  intent  to  disparage 
the  claims  of  the  Divine  Mind,  and  who  called,  in  the 
names  of  Hobbes  and  Spinoza,  men  to  drop  the  Bible 
and  hold  the  Saviour's  claims  in  suspense  until  they  had 
first  obtained  the  assent  and  endorsement  of  man's  fickle, 
fallible  intellect.    These  worshippers  of  Reason  had  hurled, 
with  what  to  themselves  seemed  a  serene  scorn,  against 
the  psalm  of  the  Covenanter  and  the  prayer  of  the  Pur- 
itan and  the  text  of  Bible-loving,  Bible-quoting  churches, 
the  dread  intimation,  "  Such,  ye  bigots  and  devotees,  is 
not  the  judgment  of  Spinoza,  the  utterance  of  Hobbes, 
'  It  is  thought.' " 

What  the  Fathers  did  wisely,  bravely,  and  well— what 
the  Fathers  held  victoriously  against  vast  odds,  when  the 


260  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTOEY. 

Traditionists  pealed,  "  It  is  rumored,"  when  the  Philos- 
ophers exclaimed,  "  It  is  thought,"  our  spiritual  ancestry 
replying  with  a  calm  burst,  "  It  is  written,  and  let  God, 
thus  writing,  he  true  though  every  man  be  a  liar" — is 
wise  for  us  also,  is  a  just  saying  and  a  brave  for  you  and 
for  me  this  day;  and  through  the  morrow,  whatever 
changeful  fashions  that  morrow  may  bring;  and  into 
the  far  eternity. 


X. 

JOHN  BUNYAN 


JOHN  BUNYAN. 


It  is  a  principle  with  which  teachers  of  rhetoric  have 
been  wont  to  arm  their  pupils,  and  a  caution  also  em- 
ployed by  instructors  in  biblical  interpretation  to  warn 
the  young  exegete  against  carrying  into  minutest  detail  his 
explanation  of  parable  or  emblem,  that ''  no  metaphor  can 
be  expected  to  run  on  all  fours."    What  might,  from  its 
likeness  in  some  respects,  be  a  just  illustration,  would  yet, 
in  other  regards,  fail  to  be  a  parallel,  apt  and  adequate,  for 
the  truth  which  it  was  quoted  to  explain,  and  jar  pain- 
fully or  ludicrously  on  the  discipk's  mind.     And  this* 
difficulty  would  be  greatly  enhanced  if,  besides  touching  at 
four,  it  should  be  held  necessary  that  the  symbol  and  the 
original  tally  at  forty  not  only,  but  at  four  hundred,  or 
even,  it  may  be,  at  four  thousand,  points  of  contact  and 
mutual  resemblance.    Yet  such  is  the  very  essence  of  suc- 
cessful allegory.     It  demands  that  the  approximations  be- 
tween the   emblem   and  its  original  should  be  continu- 
ous and  multitudinous;  that,  through  a  long-drawn  nar- 
rative, and  in  the  course,  it  may  be,  of  a  journey  lasting 
for  months  and  covering  wide  regions,  there  should  be  no 
grievous  dissonance  between  the  lesson  to  be  taught  and 
the  story  intended  to   embody  and  suggest  that  lesson. 

263 


264  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Masters  of  imagination  and  of  utterance  have  here  failed 
signally.  Dryden's  White  Hind  is  but  grotesque  Avhen 
talking  Tridentine  theology.  It  is  the  vastness  of  the 
risk  thus  run,  and  the  rare  distinction  of  eminent  suc- 
cess where  failure  is  so  easy  and  has  been  so  general,  that 
makes  the  felicity  of  Bunyan  as  an  allegorist.  Goldsmith's 
mind  was,  both  in  judgment  and  in  compass,  far  inferior 
to  that  of  his  great  friend  Samuel  Johnson.  But  he  said, 
wisely  and  wittily,  that  had  the  great  lexicographer  under- 
taken to  write  fables  like  ^sop's,  and  the  subject  of  the 
fable  should  be  minnows,  he  would  make  his  little  fishes 
talk  like  huge  whales.  His  ponderous  character  would 
break  the  spell  of  the  natural.  The  late  Prof.  De  Morgan, 
a  man  devoted  to  the  exact  sciences,  and  speaking  in  con- 
sequence with  more  precision  of  utterance  than  others, 
has  said  of  tlie  author  of  the  Pilgrini's  Progress,  "  He  is 
all  but  universally  held  to  be  the  greatest  master  of  alle- 
gory that  ever  wrote."*  So  the  Westminster  Review,  an 
authority  with  no  leanings  toward  the  author's  school 
or  theme,  calls  it  "an  allegory  the  most  remarkable  in 
the  world."  t  Contrast  either  of  his  great  books  of  this 
class,  the  Pilgrim  or  the  Holy  War  of  the  El  stow  tinker, 
with  the  Faerie  Queen,  the  great  poetical  allegory  of  Spen- 
ser. You  recognize  in  Spenser  an  imperial  richness  of 
fancy,  and  a  melodious  sweetness  of  rhythm,  with  which 
the  Nonconformist  artisan  and  preacher  could  not  begin 
to  coj)e.  But  what  a  sense  of  weariness  soon  steals  over 
the  admiring  reader  of  the  mellifluous  and  radiant  page. 

*  Budget  of  Paradoxes,  London,  1872,  p.  447. 
t  October,  1837,  p.  118. 


JOHN   BUNYAX.  265 

The  writer  has  left  his  magnificent  poem  unfinished ;  had 
it  l)een  completed  by  the  author,  the  perusal  would  be 
left,  we  fear,  incomplete  by  most  who  had  begun  to  be  its 
readers.  The  unnatural  and  the  unreal  breaks  through 
all  the  gorgeousness  of  imagery  and  the  delicious  afflu- 
ence of  style.  The  queen,  Elizabeth,  and  her  antagonist, 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  who  shine  among  Spenser's  veiled 
personages,  are  far  more  glorious  and  impressive  on  the 
prose  pages  of  Froude  than  under  the  poetic  touches  even 
of  an  Edmund  Spenser.  The  true,  the  real,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  Bunyan,  crops  out  of  the  most  bewitching  nar- 
rative of  the  figurative  and  the  emblematical.  In  the 
illiterate  tinker's  works  there  is  recognized,  by  men 
competent  to  judge  of  the  great  questions  of  psychology 
and  of  theology  there  stated,  a  profound  fitness  under  all 
the  easy,  rapid  narrative  of  pilgrimage,  siege,  and  battle- 
field. A  scholar  of  our  own  country.  Dr.  Cheever,  who  has 
written  what  both  in  Britain  and  in  our  own  land  has 
been  held  the  best  commentary  on  the  Pilr/rim,  has  found, 
if  we  remember  aright,  only  cause  for  admiration  in  the 
doctrine  as  well  as  in  the  style.  Coleridge  said  of  the 
Progress,  that  he  believed  it  the  most  exact  system  of 
evangelical  theology  on  Calvinistic  principles  that  had 
ever  been  written.  And  this  is  the  judgment,  we  must 
recollect,  of  a  keen  critic  and  ripe  scholar  widely  read  in 
various  literatures,  and  a  brilliant  poet  master  himself  of 
an  imperial  fancy.  A  venerable  scholar  of  our  own  coun- 
try, Prof.  Tayler  Lewis  of  Schenectady,  deeply  familiar 
with  Scripture  and  intellectual  philosophy,  has  said  in 
an  Old  Testament  commentary,  "On  these  deeper  aspects 

23 


266  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTOllY. 

of  humanity,  consult  that  most  profound  psychologist, 
John  Bunyan,  in  his  Holxj  War.  .  .  .  Bunyan  was  Bil)le- 
taught  in  these  matters,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  his 
knowledge  of  man  goes  so  far  beyond  that  of  Locke  or 
Kant  or  Cousin."*  Prof.  Lewis  calls  itf  "his  greatest 
book,"  ranking  it,  in  depth  of  religious  truth  and  insight, 
above  the  more  popular  Pilgrim's  Progress.  And  that  great 
theologian,  Andrew  Fuller,  adjudged  also  to  it  the  superi- 
ority over  the  other  beautiful  allegory  of  its  author. 

Yet  the  one  of  these  books,  so  wondrous  as  philosophy 
and  theology,  children  read  for  its  fascination.  Southey 
declared  that  his  own  children  read  it  for  the  story.  The 
young  Charlotte  Bronte,  in  later  years  so  celebrated  for 
her  portraitures  of  character,  when  she  was  a  mere  child 
strayed  from  home  to  find  the  wondrous  land  that  Bun- 
yan's  pages  describe.  Gerald  Massey,  the  poet,  when  a 
lad,  in  much  forlorn  povert}^,  records  in  what  circum- 
stances he  learned  to  prize  the  immortal  dreamer.  Hol- 
croft,  an  infidel  through  most  of  his  days,  and  known 
chiefly  as  a  dramatic  author,  furnishing  many  plays  for 
the  stage,  declared  "  it  to  be  the  most  exquisite  book  in 
the  English  language  that  he  had  ever  read."  So  have 
men  entirely  opposed  to  its  religious  teachings  owned 
the  witchery  of  the  narrative.  Semler,  the  father,  as 
some  style  him,  of  German  Rationalism,  speaks  of  his 
having  read  it;  and  Priestly,  of  the  impression  which 
its  images  of  the  cave  of  Despair  made  on  his  youth- 
ful mind.  Wyttenbach,  tlie  great  classical  scholar,  Swiss 
by  birth,  but  Hollander  by  adoption,  describes  the  great 

*  Lange's  Genesis,  N.  Y.,  18GS,  p.  2SG.  f  Ibid.,  p.  647. 


JOHN   BUNYAN.  267 

power  it  swa3'^ed  over  his  youthful  soul,  to  the  dislike  of 
his  father.  So  Theodore  Parker  speaks  of  its  "grand 
fabling."  Rufus  Choate,  the  rival  of  Webster,  and  one 
of  the  most  eloquent  of  the  advocates  of  the  New  Eng- 
land bar,  held  the  speech  of  Mr.  Standfast  at  the  river 
"  the  most  mellifluous  and  eloquent  talk  that  Avas  ever 
put  together  in  the  English  language."  Choate  himself 
■was  a  most  eloquent  talker,  with  a  right,  therefore,  to  he 
heard  as  to  force  and  grace  of  speech.  Buckle,  in  his 
youth,  feasted  on  it,  with  Shakespeare  and  the  Arabian 
Nights,  to  become  in  after-life  a  Positivist.  Kingsley  says 
of  this  book,  "  It  will  live  as  long  as  man  is  man." 

Now,  the  book  that  thus  extorts  from  childhood  and 
barbarianism  their  symj)athies,  and  3"et  satisfies  the  pro- 
found needs  of  thinkers  and  scholars  like  some  that  wo 
have  quoted,  must  have  had  a  wondrous  history.  It  pre- 
sents what  to  some  might  seem  of  necessity  the  repulsive 
theme  of  Christian  experience;  but  it  has  the  vivid  action 
of  the  drama  and  the  grand  march  of  the  epic,  along  with 
the  picturesque  simplicity  of  the  nursery-tale.  There  is 
the  power  of  rare  personal  genius,  but  there  is  also  the 
informing  force  of  scriptural  truth  and  of  light  from 
eternity,  and  all  these  are  ablaze  with  the  Spirit's  divine 
energies.  There  was  a  time  when  it  was  undervalued  as 
a  rude  book.  A  good  man  of  the  name  of  Gilpin,  a 
scholar  and  a  Christian,  a  clerg3'man  of  the  English 
Establishment  when  its  pulpit  had  much  less  than  now 
of  the  gospel,  many  years  ago  rewrote  the  Pilgrim,  hoping 
to  render  it  more  elegant.  The  Rev.  Charles  Neale,  a  Low 
Churchman,  gave  a  copy  of  it  as  his  dying  present  to  his 


268  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

son,  then  a  lad  of  but  five  years,  who  became  the  Rev. 
John  Mason  Neale,  a  High  Churchman,  a  Ritualist,  the 
author  of  some  beautiful  hymns,  but  who  undertook  to 
recast  the  Progress  with  more  of  the  Ritualistic  element 
interfused  into  its  structure,  and  in  consequence  incurred 
the  indignant  censure  and  remonstrance  of  Macaulay,  not 
soon  to  be  forgotten.  Others  have  translated  it  into  blank 
verse.  There  have  been  three  or  four  attempts  to  render 
it  into  English  rhyme.  And  yet  of  its  own  original  Eng- 
lish prose,  as  the  brazier's  hand  first  wrote  it  down, 
Southey — no  feeble  writer  himself — has  spoken  most 
highly.  Macaulay,  a  yet  higher  master  of  English,  has 
eulogized  it  most  earnestly  as  a  treasury  of  true  English. 

It  Avas  an  evidence  of  the  ripe  wisdom  and  the  rare, 
fine  taste  of  Bunyan  that,  familiar  as  his  youthful  cam- 
paigning had  made  him  with  the  musket  and  larger 
artillery  of  modern  warfare,  he  clung  in  his  allegory  to 
the  sword,  shield,  dart,  and  helmet  of  ancient  battle-fields. 
It  kept  his  story  more  in  unison  with  the  imagery  of 
Scripture,  as  also  with  the  romances  of  ancient  chivalry, 
so  dear  to  the  youthful  fancy  and  recurrent  in  the  pop- 
ular ballad.  And  by  preserving  in  his  more  popular  alle- 
gory of  the  Pilgrim  the  form  and  details  of  Biography, 
rather  than  the  wider  field  and  larger  groupings  of  His- 
tory, he  brought  it  more  closely  home  to  the  individual 
heart,  as  a  manual  for  the  closet  and  a  burnished  mirror 
for  the  conscience.  Scholars  in  metaphysical  and  the- 
ological lore  may  prize  the  nicer  psychology  of  the  Holy 
War,  but  the  Pilgrim  wins  more  easily  and  holds  more 
firmly  the  aflections  of  the  lone,  simple  reader,  of  the  sad 


JOIIX   BUXYAN  269 

heart  "  knowing  its  own  bitterness,"  as  of  that  same  heart 
again  when  gladdened  by  "  the  joy  wherewith  the  stranger 
intermcddlcth  not." 

The  lot  of  Bunyan  was  cast  in  an  age  of  great  changes, 
dire  perils,  and  heroic  men.  His  father,  a  tinker,  brought 
the  boy  np  in  his  own  trade,  yet  gave  him  some  school- 
ing, which  the  lad  seems  greatly  to  have  neglected  and 
to  have  almost  totally  lost. 

Profane  and  rude,  he  Avas  perhaps  a  roysterer,  as  the 
age  called  it,  rather  than  a  vicious  lad.  James  and 
Charles  I.  had  both,  by  the  Book  of  Sports,  fostered  cer- 
tain games  as  fit  recreations  on  the  Lord's  Day.  In  bell- 
ringing,  Bunyan  delighted  extravagantly,  as  once  did 
Hale,  who  afterward  crossed  Bunyan's  path  in  later  years 
so  strangely.  At  seventeen  he  drifted  into  the  army, 
whether  that  of  the  king  or  of  the  Parliament  is  to  this 
da}^  a  matter  of  debate  among  his  biographers.  We  rather 
think  the  probabilities  that  he  was  on  tbe  king's  side  are 
the  greater  from  various  considerations.  His  profane  hab- 
its would  have  been  in  keeping  with  the  known  practices- 
of  the  Cavaliers,  but  would  have  been  strongly  and  effectu- 
ally put  down  in  the  Parliamentar}'  forces.  Such  ignorance 
of  gospel  doctrine  as  he  showed  in  the  days  of  his  first 
seriousness  he  could  scarce  have  had  under  the  teaching^ 
of  Parliamentary  chaplains  and  in  the  society  of  Parlia- 
mentary soldiers,  many  of  them  exhorters  themselves, 
earnest  and  devout  men.  Had  his  place  been  in  the  army 
on  the  people's  side,  the  successes  won  by  that  army  at 
Naseby  would  have  fixed  him  still  in  the  ranks;  whereas 
the  defeat  of  the  royal  forces  there  and  elsewhere  in  that 

23  « 


270  LECTURES   ON   B.NJ'TIST   HLSTORY. 

same  year  would  soon  disperse  the  recruits  but  recently 
enlisted  and  loosely  attached  to  the  king's  banners ;  and 
in  some  such  Avay  only  does  Bunyan's  speedy  return  to 
civil  life  seem  explicable.  Another  collateral  circumstance, 
pointing  in  the  same  direction,  is  his  joining  the  church  of 
Gilford.  The  church  which  he  first  attended  when  deeply 
impressed,  and  which  he  ultimately  joined,  had  as  its  pastor 
Gilford,  who  had  been  an  officer  in  the  royal  forces,  then 
a  profane  and  wicked  man,  but  afterward  converted  and 
become  eminently  pious.  Now,  the  mere  fact  of  having 
both  been  in  the  king's  army  would  seem  a  very  natural 
explanation  of  their  drifting  together  into  the  same  eccle- 
siastical community.  At  the  siege  of  Leicester — a  period 
when  Charles  was  writing  that  his  aflairs  looked  more 
hopeful  than  they  had  long  done — Bunyan  was  to  have 
occupied  a  sentinel's  place.  From  some  delay  another 
was  sent  in  his  stead,  who  was  shot  dead  at  his  post. 
Bunyan  always  afterward  regarded  this  as  a  special  de- 
liverance of  God's  good  providence  that  lie  had  been  pre- 
vented occupying  that  post.  Drifted  back,  if  our  conjec- 
ture be  just,  by  the  defeat  of  his  cause  and  commander, 
to  civil  life,  Bunyan  was  in  his  old  haunts  a  violent  and 
profane  swearer;  but  it  scarcely  seems  he  was,  either  as 
libertine  or  tippler,  Avhat  would  now  be  regarded  as  thor- 
oughly vicious.  But  his  fluent  and  fierce  cursing  pro- 
voked the  censure  of  a  neighboring  woman,  herself  lightly 
regarded ;  and  the  sharp  check  of  those  rude  lips  smote 
his  heart.  Earl}'-  married  to  a  young  woman,  the  daugh- 
ter, and  probably  the  orphan  daughter,  of  a  pious  father, 
she  brought  to  her  young  liusband  but  the  dowry  of  two 


JOHN  BUNYAN. 


271 


pious  books,  Dent's  Plain  Man's  Pathivay  to  Heaven  and 
Bayley's  Practice  of  Piety.  The  author  of  the  hist  was  a 
Welsh  bishop,  whose  little  book,  translated  into  several 
languages,  had  great  currency.  He  had  read  also  in  early 
or  later  years  the  Life  of  Francis  Spira,  Luther's  Exposition 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  Sermons  of  Bishop  An- 
drewes,  and  Foxe's  Martyrs. 

His  conscience  seems  to  have  been  disturbed ;  and  his 
overhearing  the  conversation  of  some  poor  pious  women, 
who  described  their  own  religious  experience,  aroused  in 
him  a  sense  of  his  wanting  entirely  that  inner  religious 
life  of  which  they  testified.  As  he  searched  and  read 
and  prayed,  his  feelings  became  those  of  intensest  anx- 
iety, and  often  of  overwhelming  despair.  The  scenes  of 
the  Slough  of  Despond,  the  beetling  sides  of  Sinai,  the 
gloom  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death,  and  the  ter- 
rible speculations  leading  on  to  the  cavern-dungeons  of 
Giant  Despair,— all  are  but  reverberations  of  his  own  per- 
sonal story.  The  viscid  slime  of  the  morass  had  ham- 
pered his  steps ;  the  chill  gloom  of  the  prison-house  and 
its  rusty  iron  had  entered  into  his  soul. 

God  brought  him  through  to  the  light  and  peace  of  the 
gospel  in  a  sense  of  the  sacrifice  and  righteousness  of 
Christ.  The  doctrine  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  of  Augustine 
before  them,  and  .Jansenius  and  Arnauld  and  Pascal  after 
them,  became  the  substantial  outline  of  his  own  view  of 
the  way  in  which  God's  grace  meets  the  sinner.  Encour- 
aged by  his  fellow-Christians,  he  became  a  laborer  for 
Christ,  and  soon  an  exhortcr,  and  finally  a  preacher. 
But  there  were  periods  even  under  Cromwell's  rule  when 


272  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

the  Presbyterian  influence  would  hamper  the  preaching 
of  the  Baptists,  and  Bunyan  was  thus  molested  before 
the  Restoration.  But  when  the  Restoration  brought  a 
reckless  and  proscriptive  prelacy  into  many  dioceses, 
Bunyan  fell  soon  under  the  notice  of  the  authorities. 
Wingate  and  Kelyng,  names  that  yet  survive  in  the 
legal  literature  of  Britain,  were — one  as  clerk  of  the 
court,  and  the  other  as  judge — among  those  Avho  har- 
ried and  threatened  our  worthy  tinker. 

But  he  had  counted  the  cost,  and  Avas  ready  to  face  the 
result.  That  he  did  not  attend  the  State-Church  ;  that  he 
would  not  use  the  prayer-book,  when  he  believed  in  the 
grace  and  duty  of  imploring  the  Spirit's  aid  in  voluntary 
prayer, — were  offences  not  to  be  remitted  to  one  so  zeal- 
ous, so  popular,  and  so  constantly  itinerant.  The  loss  of 
friends  and  home,  and  the  means  of  providing  sustenance 
for  his  wife  and  four  children,  one  of  them  blind,  who  lay 
especially  near  a  fond  parent's  heart, — all  were  consider- 
ations to  have  made  many  men  pause.  But  Bunyan  was 
Steadfast  and  Valiant-for-the-Truth  and  Great-Heart  all 
in  one.  He  went  to  the  prison,  in  which,  for  the  greater 
part  of  twelve  and  a  half  years,  he  was  detained.  The  jail 
sometimes  thronged  with  prisoners;  Bunyan  joreached  to 
his  fellows  there;  learned  to  make  thread-lace  for  the  bread 
of  his  household  when  his  brazier-work  had  been  cut  off 
Ijy  prison-walls;  studied  his  Bible  and  his  Foxe's  Martyrs; 
and  the  men  of  whom  this  old  martyrologist  told  had  in 
this  simple  Baptist  one  ready  to  share  like  sacrifices.  For 
sometimes  he  was  threatened  with  banishment;  and  at 
others,  even  with  hanging.     But  he  found  favor  in  the 


JOHN    BUNYAN.  273 

eyes  of  his  jailer,  and  sometimes  in  disguise  visited  his 
famil}'  and  resumed  his  preaching.  At  times  he  was  dis- 
guised, it  is  said,  as  a  ploughman,  in  the  frock  of  the  em- 
ployment and  with  Avagoner's  whip  in  his  hand,  hut 
everywhere  and  in  all  events  and  perils,  he  was  Christ's 
true  Avitness,  retaining  his  people's  hearts  and  sustained 
by  their  prayers. 

An  appeal  was  brought  by  his  wife,  a  second,  Avhom  he 
had  married  on  losing  the  first,  the  mother  of  his  chil- 
dren ;  and  the  excellent  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  when  ap- 
proached with  the  request,  showed  himself  the  serious, 
kindly,  and  upright  magistrate  he  alwavs  proved  himself. 
The  friend  of  Baxter,  who  was  also  a  Nonconformist, 
Hale  could  not  be  at  least  the  enemy  of  one  whom  yet. 
indeed,  he  had  not  by  his  works  known.  He  counselled 
a  personal  application  to  the  king.  But  that  in  these 
days  to  the  poor  in  the  provinces  would  seem  a  sheer 
impossibility.  •  The  policy  of  the  Court  changed.  Seek- 
ing in  secret  a  restoration  of  Romanism,  both  Charles  and 
James  II.  would  have  favored  the  Romish  Church,  and  to 
that  intent  would  have  relaxed  the  laws  against  the  Non- 
conformist portion  of  the  Protestants.  But  the  High 
Church  were  in  that  day  ruthless  and  prescriptive  be- 
yond even  the  days  of  Laud.  The  Quaker  element  had 
obtained  the  ear  of  the  Court  through  the  influence  of 
one  of  their  members  on  Charles  II.,  whom,  Avhen  a 
fugitive  ])rince  fleeing  from  the  rising  star  of  the  Com- 
monwealth and  Cromwell,  this  Quaker,  then  a  sailor, 
had  aided  in  his  escape  to  France.  Their  Quaker  breth- 
ren clogged  the  prisons  along  with  the  Nonconforniists. 


274  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Eishop  Barlow  was  said  in  earlier  narratives  to  have  inter- 
fered, but  the  later  accounts  represent  this  Quaker  influ- 
ence as  having  been  almost  the  sole  power  in  opening 
tlie  prison-doors  to  a  large  number;  and  Bunyan  was 
among  them. 

His  zeal  and  activity  had  acquired  for  him  already 
the  name  of  Bishop  Bunyan.  His  preaching  at  his  own 
church  and  its  various  out-stations;  his  books,  small 
and  great,  which  he  sent  out  with  the  utmost  rapidity ; 
his  popuiar  eloquence;  his  visits  to  London,  where  he 
always  attracted  a  crowd,  even  if  the  service  were  in  the 
early  morning, — had  made  him  a  name  and  a  power. 
Owen,  the  greatest  of  the  Congregational ists,  is  said,  with 
all  his  erudition  and  his  mastery  of  the  Scriptures,  to  have 
recognized  the  genius  and  pulpit  power  of  Bunyan,  and 
to  have  given  ready  and  generous  acknowledgment  of  it. 

His  books  show  Bunyan  to  have  read  human  charac- 
ter rajDidly  and  keenly.  Some  of  his  portraitures  in  the 
Progress  and  in  the  Holy  War  are — both  as  kindly  sketches 
of  Christian  excellence,  or  as  a  vivid  outline  of  the  per- 
secutor, the  whiffler,  the  pickthank,  and  the  prater — of 
a  force  and  neatness  Avhich  Swift  would  have  made 
coarser,  but  could  not  have  made  stronger,  and  which 
Eochefoucault  or  La  Bruyere  could  scarcely  have  made 
more  graceful  or  have  rendered  more  delicate.  Strong  in 
the  Bible,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own  heart,  and 
in  the  story  of  his  various  flock,  all  his  books  display 
one  in  whom  wit  and  wisdom  and  devotion  greatly  shone. 
One  cannot  but  imagine  what  his  feelings  would  have 
been  had  he  crossed  the  path  of  some  of  his  eminent  con- 


JOHN   BUNYAN.  275 

temporaries,  also  Christian — of  good  Bishop  Ken,  or  of 
Izaak  Walton,  or  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  or  of  Archbishop 
Ussher,  or  of  the  saintly  Archbishop  Leighton. 

An  Episcopal  poet  and  bishop  of  our  own  country  has 
expressed  the  regret  that  some  good  bishop  did  not  find 
him,  take  Bunyan  home,  and  make  a  deacon  of  him. 
The  proposal,  we  judge,  was  not  as  practicable,  had  it  been 
tried,  as  it  may  to  some  now  seem.  Bunyan  was  rooted 
in  the  conviction  that  acceptable  worship  should  be  free 
and  spiritual,  and  without  the  forms  of  a  printed  book. 
His  Calvinism  was  decided  at  a  day  when  the  leading 
prelates  of  the  churcli  were  going  over  from  the  Calvinism 
of  the  Reformation  and  the  Elizabethan  times  to  the  Ar- 
minian  and  Latitudinarian  platform.  Fowler,  the  author 
of  The  Way  of  Salvation — a  book  which  Bishop  Watson, 
many  years  after,  reprinted  in  his  Theological  Tracts  with 
much  praise — in  that  very  book  had  taken  ground  which 
Bunyan  held  fatal  to  the  gospel  and  denounced  in  that 
light.  The  controversy  was  bitter ;  and  Fowler,  diocesan 
as  he  afterward  became,  acquired  little  honor  in  his  con- 
flict with  the  author  of  the  PilgrirrCs  Progress.  But  God 
had  in  his  servant  already  accomplished  much ;  and  if 
appearances  do  not  greatly  misguide,  the  results  hereafter 
to  be  accomplished  are  even  yet  greater  than  the  rich  in- 
gatherings of  the  past.  In  a  mission  of  mercy,  riding  to 
reconcile  a  father  to  his  disobedient  but  penitent  son, 
Bunyan  contracted  a  fever,  lay  sick  at  the  house  of  a 
friend,  a  Congregationalist  deacon,  in  London,  and  there 
died.  Interred  in  Bunhill  Fields,  his  grave  has  been 
since  a  place  of  growing  interest,  attracting  its  numerous 


276  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

visitants.  The  monument,  more  than  once  repaired,  has 
become  lately  graced  with  a  recumbent  statue.  The  late 
Lord  Chancellor  Campbell,  himself  the  son  of  a  Scottish 
Presbyterian  minister,  in  his  Lives  of  the  Lord  Chief-Jus- 
tices,'^ has  spoken — perhaps  too  warmly — of  Bunyan  as 
one  Avho  accomplished  more  by  his  Avorks  for  the  cause 
of  religion  than  all  the  prelates  of  the  Established  Church. 
Each  man  has  his  own  gift.  Chalmers  once  said  that 
all  the  revenue  of  the  see  of  Durham — and  it  was  once 
among  the  richest  of  the  English  bishoprics — ever  paid, 
century  after  century,  to  its  successive  incumbents,  did 
not  overpay  the  worth  to  religion  of  Joseph  Butler's  great 
book.  The  Analogy  of  Religion.  And  it  is  a  volume  of 
great  and  imperishable  poAver  for  thinkers  of  a  certain 
class.  But  the  Pilgrim^s  Progress  of  Bunyan  was  written 
for  a  wider  circle,  and  with  a  brighter,  if  not  a  keener, 
genius.  The  writings,  too,  of  Beveridge  and  Andrewes 
and  Ken  and  Reynolds,  and  of  men  in  the  church 
who  never  wore  mitres,  like  Perkins,  Sibbes,  Preston, 
and  others,  are  of  high  and  enduring  value. 

But  God  called  his  more  honored  servant  to  show  that 
*  Ld.  Ch.  Campbell,  Lives  of  Lord  Chief-Justices,  3d  ed.,  Lond.,  1874, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  213:  "Inspired  by  him  who  touched  Elijah's  [Isaiah's] 
hallowed  lips  with  fire,  he  [B.]  composed  the  noblest  of  allegories,  the 
merit  of  which  was  first  discovered  by  the  lowly,  but  which  is  now 
lauded  by  the  most  refined  critics,  and  which  has  done  more  to  awaken 
piety  and  to  enforce'  the  precepts  of  Christian  morality  than  all  the 
sermons  that  have  been  published  by  all  the  })relates  of  the  Anglican 
Church."  It  is  language  of  singular  emphasis,  as  coming  from  one 
who,  as  occupant  of  the  woolsack,  had  himself  sat  with  the  wearers 
of  mitres  in  the  British  House  of  Lords. 


JOHN   BUNYAN.  277 

"chill  penury,"  which,  as  Gray  tells,  has  in  so  many  a 
lofty  soul  "repressed  the  noble  rage"  of  genius,  need  not 
be  found  an  insuperable  barrier;  that  instead  of  clog,  it 
may  be  to  Christian  faith  and  Christian  love  a  spur.  The 
tinker,  with  no  university  laurels  on  his  sturdy  brow,  has 
moved  calmly  to  take  his  place  among  the  celebrities  of 
English  literature,  and  the  literature  of  the  British  Islands 
has  proved  too  narrow  for  the  range  of  the  widened  influ- 
ence which  God  meant  to  bestow  upon  him. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  took  unhappy  and  misjudging  measure 
of  the  Covenanters  of  his  own  region  and  of  the  Puritans 
of  England ;  but  to  Bunyan  he  has  not  been  unjust,  as  to 
the  preacher's  brother-Baptist,  Harrison. 

The  other  and  later  critics  have  seemingly  united  to 
allow  to  this  man  of  the  peasantry  and  the  workshop 
the  honors  of  a  prose  Dante  come  back  from  the  Eternal 
World  as  with  its  clinging,  dazzling  splendors. 

Even  in   his  lifetime  our  author  complained  of  the 

counterfeiters  that  attached  his  name  to  their  own  wares. 

The  Third  Part,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  Progress  is  of  this 

unworthy  class.    Some  Scottish  professors  of  eminence  in 

science,  Thomson  and  Tait,  attached  as  a  motto  in  its  first 

edition  to  a  recent  pamphlet  of  their  own  a  citation  from 

this  forged  Third  Part,  as  if  believing  its  genuineness.    In 

its  theology,  as  in  its  cumbrous  style,  it  is  wholly  unlike 

Bunyan ;  and  it  introduces  in  one  of  its  characters  Suicide 

— a  melancholy  theme,  and,  to  modern  society,  one  of 

growing  interest;  and  the  regret  is  excited  that  Bunyan 

did  not  himself  treat  this  dark  topic  in  his  own  sinewy 

Saxon  and  with  his  grand  force  and  breadth  of  fancy,  and 
2-t 


278  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

Avith  his  hold  alike  on  the  people's  heart  and  on  the  peo- 
ple's Bible. 

Art  has,  in  later  days,  never  wearied  in  its  endeavor  to 
reproduce  the  characters  to  which  Bunyan's  pen  first  gave 
life.  An  intense  Realism  is  the  peculiar  distinction  of  his 
genius.  As  Defoe  gave  to  the  creations  of  his  fancy  the 
aspect  of  London  tradesmen  and  of  Wapping  sailors,  so 
Bunyan,  with  the  fidelity  of  a  Dutch  painter,  reproduced 
character,  feature,  and  bearing — not  as  an  Italian  master 
would  assay  to  do,  idealizing  and  etherealizing,  and  so 
evaporating  them,  but  in  the  garb  of  his  own  day,  and 
with  the  distinct,  minute,  patient  limnings,  and  the  clear, 
varied,  and  exact  hues,  of  the  particolored  humanity  he 
saw  moving  around  him.  His  Vanity  Fair  had  lived  in 
the  generation  before,  as  it  was  living  in  the  generation 
around  him ;  and  it  will  live  again  long  as  Vanity  whirls 
men  out  of  the  ruts  of  Duty  into  the  clouds  of  an  idle 
Fancy  and  into  the  sloughs  of  miry  Passion. 

Yet,  with  all  this  accuracy,  there  was  the  freedom  of 
Nature,  the  many-sided;  and  the  picturesque  play  of  Life, 
the  man3^-mooded  and  the  many-hued.  But  not  too  low 
for  pity  and  tears,  not  too  high  for  j)rayers  and  duties. 
Humanity  with  Bunyan  was  not  the  being  that  Milton  in 
his  later  daj's  fancied,  that  Rousseau  in  his  elaborate  and 
eloquent  sketches  exalted  ;  but  it  was  Humanity  with  the 
image  of  Eden  not  all  erased,  with  the  fetters  of  Sin  con- 
tinually dragged  at  the  ankles  till  the  feet  were  planted  in 
the  ways  of  Christ's  obedience,  and  the  neck  grew  strong, 
erect,  and  stubborn  in  the  clasj)  of  Christ's  enamelling, 
enfranchising  holiness — a  penitent,  religious  manhood, 


JOHN    BUNYAN.  279 

mindful  of  the  Fall,  but  wistful  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
and  with  e3'es  bent  to  the  welcoming  Father  and  the 
waiting  Heavens.  Such  a  man  could  not  be  perma- 
nently wretched,  nor  could  he  be  effectually  proscribed 
and  crushed. 

Such  a  Puritanism  planted  our  own  New  England,  But 
it  was  not  perfect,  because  it  arrogated  a  perfection  which 
it  did  not  possess,  and  denied  room  to  men  like  Bunyan 
and  like  Roger  Williams,  except  as  they  were  meek  and 
submissive  and  conformed  to  its  behests.  Robinson  had 
bidden  his  brethren,  when  quitting  Europe  for  America,  to 
look  out  for  further  light  yet  to  break  out  of  God's  word 
and  providence.  Against  some  of  that  Hght  they  bolted 
wicket  and  closed  window.  That  light  so  breaks  out— 
not  in  a  Rationalism,  self-confident,  arrogant,  and  super- 
ficial, which  blots  Revelation  and  outruns  the  Christ. 
The  true  light  came  evermore  from  him  who  was  an- 
ciently, who  remains  at  this  moment,  and  will  abide  to 
the  utmost  bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills,  the  one  Light 
of  the  world. 

To  this  Light,  Luther  looked,  as  did  Augustine  before 
him.  To  him  Pascal  looked,  and  Bunyan.  And  at  his 
feet  is  the  lesson  of  the  day  and  the  hope  of  the  race. 
From  him  comes  the  destiny  of  our  own  and  all  worlds ; 
and  it  was  part  of  his  goodness  to  have  opened  the  pil- 
grimage from  Destruction  to  Glory,  and  to  have  given 
Bunyan  the  heart  to  portray  for  us  and  for  himself  the 
way  thither. 

It  is  matter  of  astonishment  that  out  of  scenes,  to  the 
hurried  and  scornful  glance  of  man,  most  unpromising, 


280  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

God  often  summons  influences  of  unexpected  potency, 
and  which,  instead  of  soon  spending  themselves,  seem 
destined  to  win  new  allies,  and  take  on  fresh  territories 
for  their  domain,  as  man  and  society  move  on.  When 
Bunyan  w\as  remanded  to  his  prison — the  "  den,"  as  even 
the  patient  Christian  confessor  might  well  term  it — his 
enemies  might  seem  justified  when  scouting  the  presump- 
tuousness  of  the  poor  "  sectaries "  in  hoping  for  any 
remedy  where  wealth  and  power  and  courtly  influence 
and  spiritual  despotism  all  hurled  back  the  plea  of  the 
poor  wife,  interceding  for  Bunyan 's  hearing  and  release. 
But  out  of  the  repulse  was  bred  no  despair ;  and  when 
Bunyan's  great  allegories  appeared,  schemed  and  in  part 
begun  in  that  den,  men  might  begin  to  see  the  faithfulness 
and  beneficence  of  Providence  in  the  incarceration  that 
trained  the  writer;  and  might  learn  how  much  the  soul 
that  clasped  God's  promise  and  covenant  could  rise  supe- 
rior to  the  party  and  cabinet  and  Parliament  which  at 
the  time  condemned  it;  and  comprehend  how  such  a  soul, 
so  schooled,  could  build  up  an  influence  to  outlive  the 
Stuart  dynasty,  and  to  spread  beyond  the  bounds  of  the 
British  empire.  And  the  chief  distinction  of  the  town 
of  Bedford  and  neighborhood  is  now,  not  the  ducal  home 
and  library  and  park  of  Woburn  Abbey,  so  long  tenanted 
by  the  noble  family  of  the  Russells ;  but  yet  more,  that 
Bedford  prison  was  so  long  the  home  of  a  genius  now 
world-wide  in  renown.  And  as  if  God  would  not  let  the 
blessed  memor}^  of  his  faithful  servitor  pass  on,  limited 
but  to  one  single  channel,  his  wisdom  brought  to  that 
same  prison  the  sympathies  and  conscientious  regard  of 


JOHN    BUNYAN.  281 

Joliii  Howard.  Residing  near  and  made  sheriff  of  that 
county,  he  accepted  the  trust,  and  began  to  measure  and 
gauge  its  extent  by  ascertaining  the  discomforts  and 
snares,  the  physical  and  the  moral  contaminations,  and 
Avretchedness  and  sufferings,  of  such  abodes.  And  thus 
began  that  career  which  Burke  in  the  imperial  Parlia- 
ment so  eloquently  portrayed  and  eulogized,  and  which, 
having  traversed  the  British  Isles,  passed  on  so  heroically, 
patiently,  and  persistently,  to  the  scenes  of  similar  endu- 
rance on  the  European  Continent.  In  doing  this,  Howard 
was  urged  by  the  same  gospel  which  had  been  the  great 
motive-power  of  Bunyau.  Though  Bunyan  was  himself 
a  Baptist,  the  church  he  had  long  guided  and  fed  passed 
to  the  charge  of  Piedobaptist  pastors.  One  of  these,  a 
Paedobaptist,  becoming  on  examination  a  convert  to  our 
views  of  the  ordinance,  was  baptized  by  immersion ;  and 
retained  his  pulpit  and  charge  whilst  Howard  was  resi- 
dent there.  Baptist  as  Simonds  was,  Howard  was  one  of 
his  regular  hearers;  and  one  of  the  last  letters  written  by 
the  philanthropist  abroad  to  those  having  charge  of  his 
Bedford  affairs  contained  instructions  for  the  payment  of 
his  annual  contribution  to  the  Baptist  pastor's  salary.  At 
London,  Howard  was  the  habitual  hearer  of  another  and 
more  distinguished  Baptist  pastor,  Dr.  Stennett;  and  before 
going  abroad  on  his  tour  of  mercy,  he  wrote  to  Dr. 
Stennett,  saying,  that  the  written  memorials  of  sermons 
which  he  had  heard  from  his  lips  were  among  his  choice 
spiritual  consolations  in  his  journeyings  and  his  isola- 
tion's on  the  Lord's  Day.  It  is  not  certain  that  Howard 
was  himself  a  full  convert  to  the  views  of  Simonds  and 

24  » 


282  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

Stcnnctt;  but  it  is  thus  seen  how  through  a  Baptist's  old 
})rison  and  Baptist  pulpits  went  down,  as  from  dungeon 
and  from  desk,  their  shares  of  force  to  the  impulse  that 
made  Howard  the  admiration  and  the  blessing  of  so 
many  in  lands  so  remote. 

The  honors  of  a  statue  and  memorial,  which  in  his 
lifetime  Howard  so  passionately  rejected,  were  conferred 
on  him  after  his  death ;  and,  in  spite  of  his  protest,  the 
figure  shaped  by  another  Christian,  the  sculptor  Bacon^ 
was  reared  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London.  Admiration 
of  that  statue  and  of  the  career  of  philanthropy  which 
it  honored,  moved  the  soul  of  Andrew  Reed,  when  a  mere 
lad  led  thither  by  his  mother;  and  out  of  it,  Avhen  a  min- 
ister, came  Reed's  establishment  of  four  large  institutions 
of  benevolence  in  and  near  the  British  capital.  More  re- 
cently a  bronze  statue  has  been  reared  in  Bedford  to  Bun- 
yan,  the  gift  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  ;  and  at  a  yet  nearer 
day  the  same  nobleman  has  given  bronze  gates,  adorned 
Avith  memorial  scenes  from  the  Progress,  to  the  enclosure 
of  the  chapel  occupied  by  the  church  of  which  in  former 
times  Bunyan  was  the  pastor.  When  the  Bunyan  statue 
w:as  erected,  it  was  announced  that  the  first  book  given,  in 
his  childhood,  to  the  duke  thus  bestowing  the  memorial 
of  their  eminent  townsman  on  the  town  of  Bedford,  had 
been  a  copy  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  presented  to  the  young 
child  by  his  mother,  and  that  mother  an  intimate  friend 
of  Mrs.  Carlylo,  the  wife  of  the  historian  of  the  French 
Revolution.  Dean  Stanley,  chaplain  to  Queen  Victoria, 
officiated  at  the  services  of  the  presentation  of  the  Bun- 
yan memorial.     It  was  there  mentioned,  that  the  present 


JOHN    BUNYAN.  283 

sovereign,  now  a  grandmother,  when  the  eldest  son  of  the 
Prince  of  "Wales  received  infant  baptism,  gave,  as  sponsor 
to  her  grandchild,  a  silver  statuette  of  the  late  Prince  Al- 
bert, her  husband  —  that  husband  so  cherished  and  so 
lamented — in  the  pilgrim  garb  of  Christian,  the  way- 
faring man  of  the  Pilgnm''s  Progress.  Were  John  in  the 
body  again  revisiting  the  earth,  he  might  have  his  own 
thoughts  as  to  the  infant  aspersion ;  but  it  would  in  his 
loyal  eyes  be  a  pleasant  token  of  the  Christian  sorrow  of' 
the  widowed  queen,  that  she  remembered,  and  would  have 
her  grandchild  remember,  in  his  religious  principles  and 
character,  the  husband  so  loved  and  deplored.  And  that 
ingenious  dreamer — who,  in  delicate  allusion  to  the  reign- 
ing profligates  of  his  own  time,  the  age  of  the  Stuarts, 
had  said,  it  would  be  pleasant  "if  the  tops  of  the  moun- 
tains could  be  seen  cleared  of  the  deluge  "  of  abounding 
and  overruling  iniquity — might  well  join  the  Avidowed 
sovereign  in  the  hope,  for  her  son  and  for  her  son's  son, 
that  their  eminence  might  become  an  exaltation  above 
folly,  a  refuge  for  truth  and  for  holiness,  even  if  holiness 
and  truth  should  unhappily  be  deserted  and  submerged 
all  about  them. 

To  crave  posthumous  fame  is  jironounced  by  some  an 
utter  vanity.  But,  vain  or  not,  Bunyan  has  received  it, 
and  is  continually  amassing  it  in  yet  increasing  measure. 
But  posthumous  usefulness  is  certainly  a  boon  to  be 
eagerly  sought  and  to  be  passionately  cherished,  if  we 
believe  the  text,  that  the  righteous  dead,  resting  from 
their  labors,  have  yet  their  works  following  them.  In 
how  many  languages  which   Bunyan   could   not   under- 


284  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

stand  is  his  Pilgrim  now  pronouncing  the  old  gospel. 
When  that  martyrdom  which  raged  in  the  island  of 
Madagascar — during  the  reign  of  a  former  queen,  a  fanat- 
ical persecutor — was  at  its  height,  the  Christian  converts 
had  already,  in  their  dispersion  or  in  their  dungeons, 
manuscript  copies  of  a  version  of  the  Pilgrim'' s  Progress  ; 
and  the  martyrs  cheered  each  other  in  approaching  the 
final  tortures  and  sacrifice  by  citing  passages  of  this  book, 
Western  in  its  origin,  but  biblical  in  its  structure  and 
spirit ;  and  thus,  like  the  Bible  from  which  it  is  drawn, 
meeting  their  case  and  going  to  the  heart's  depths  in  the 
hour  of  earth's  last  agonies. 

The  work  goes  on;  and  from  another  side  of  the  same 
great  African  continent  comes  a  like  attestation.  Dr. 
Robb,  a  missionary  of  the  United  Presbyterians  of  Scot- 
land, labored  long  at  Old  Calabar,  in  Western  Africa.  An 
accomplished  scholar,  for  seventeen  years  he  toiled  on 
this  dismal  and  pestilential  coast.  From  the  original 
Hebrew  he  translated  the  Old  Testament  into  the  Efik 
tongue.  Weakened  by  successive  attacks  of  fever  of 
growing  violence,  he  has  returned  to  Scotland,  but  he 
has  first  translated  into  the  Efik  tongue  Bunyan's  Pil- 
grini's  Progress.^'  Sarkis,  an  Armenian,  translating  Bun- 
yan's Pilgrim  into  his  Asiatic  dialect,  rejoiced,  when 
dying,  at  the  thought  that  he  should  go  to  see  Bunyan 
himself,  the  writer  of  that  book,  in  heaven.  Would  the 
exultation  be  only  on  the  side  of  the  convert,  and  not 
of  the  long-glorified  believer  as  Avell?  Joseph  Wolff  dis- 
tributed copies  of  it  in  Arabic  in  the  territories  of  Arabia 
*  Am.  Bible  Soc.  Record,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  17,  187G,  vol.  xxi.  p.  124. 


JOHN    BUNYAN.  285 

itself,  perhaps  in  regions  over  which  Job  had  wearily 
tramped,  or  Avhich  had  been  traversed  by  his  pious  but 
aged  friends,  the  sheiks  Eliphaz,  Zophar,  and  Bildad,  as 
they  came  to  proffer  their  friend  the  bootless  consolation 
that  soon  became  goading  to  its  patient.  It  has  been 
given  in  Hebrew  at  the  gates  of  modern  Jerusalem  ;  and 
if  pondered  by  its  takers,  we  think  it  likely  to  be  more 
cause  of  gratulation  than  most  of  the  material  relics  that 
travellers  bring  from  those  memorable  scenes.  In  French, 
in  German,  in  Danish,  in  Hungarian,  in  modern  Greek, 
in  Malagasy,  Bengalee,  Hindu,  Urdu,  Tamil,  Canarese, 
Teloogoo,  Malayalin,  Mahratta,  Samoan,  Tahitian,  Bur- 
mese, Karen,  and  dialects  it  would  be  wearisome  to  add  ; 
in  fact,  in  more  tongues  than  are  enumerated  as  spoken, 
in  the  day  of  Pentecost  to  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem,  God's 
providence  has  caused  this  wondrous  volume  to  be  ren- 
dered. 

The  attempt  has  been  frequently,  but  never  success- 
fully, made  to  show  Bunyan  indebted  for  suggestions  in 
his  work  to  earlier  or  contemporary  authors.  The  hon- 
est protest  he  makes  in  the  matter  is  evidence  sufficient, 
intrinsically,  of  its  perfect  originality.  The  late  George 
Offer  has  devoted  Avhat  to  some  will  seem  weariness  of 
exhausting  comment  and  analysis,  upon  the  various 
books  that  have  been  presented  as  models  or  exemplars. 
The  evidence  of  collation  is,  we  think,  overwhelming  that 
Bunyan  was  no  plagiarist.  Bishop  Patrick's  Pilgrim,  to 
the  few  who  read  it,  gives  sufficient  manifestation  that, 
whatever  the  personal  worth  and  scholarly  training  of 
the  good  prelate,  the  contemporary  of  the  Elstow  tinker, 


286  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

yet  he  was,  as  a  master  of  English  and  of  allegory,  en- 
tirely incompetent  to  stand  beside  the  Nonconformist 
genius. 

So  various  writers  have  essayed  to  rival,  in  the  same 
and  in  new  paths  of  allegorical  fancy,  the  career  and 
power  of  John  Bunyan.  A  volume  of  interest  might  be 
compiled  on  these  British  and  American  disciples;  but 
we  believe  the  voice  of  criticism  is  unanimous  in  its 
prompt  deliverance,  that  the  mantle  of  the  Bedford  wor- 
thy has  not,  in  his  Elijah  flight  to  fame  and  blessed  and 
Avorld-wide  usefulness,  fallen  on  these  admiring  Elishas. 
Some  of  the  later  books  are  ingenious  and  able,  and  not 
without  their  own  interest  and  attractiveness ;  but  they 
are  not  of  his  spiritual  kith  and  lineage.  Hawthorne's 
Celestial  Railroad  is  one  of  the  happiest ;  yet  it  is  a  grim, 
satirical  episode,  so  to  speak,  of  a  part  of  the  great  epic 
of  the  Progress;  and  shows  Abaddon  at  his  old  and  too 
successful  stratagems,  without  that  burst  of  celestial  glory 
which  so  irradiates  the  First  Part  of  Bunyan's  allegory. 
For  the  beauty  of  these  sketches  we  find  a  voucher  in 
the  lectures  on  the  advantages  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
delivered  by  Dean  Stanley  to  the  graduates  of  an  Eng- 
lish university  in  which  he  was  professor, — that  old  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  which  once  scouted  Methodism  and 
dissent  so  haughtily.  Stanley,  the  friend  and  disciple 
and  admirer  of  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  imliued  in  classi- 
cal memories,  yet  thought  sentences  of  Bunyan,  tinker  as 
was  the  inditer,  no  unfit  opening  and  no  unmeet  close 
of  his  classical  pages.  He  begins  the  first  of  these  in- 
troductory lectures  Avith  a  screed  from  the  House  Beau- 


JOIIX   BUNYAN.  287 

tiful  and  its  galleries  shown  to  pilgrims;  and  rounds  up 
the  end  of  his  third  lecture  with  a  vista  as  seen  from  the 
leads  of  tlie  House  ]5eautiful  looking  toward  the  Delect- 
able ^Mountains  of  Immanuel's  Land  and  of  the  Celestial 
City,  a  city  and  land  from  those  Delectable  Mountains  to 
be  3'et  more  nearly  and  clearly  discerned. 

Bunyan  has  been  a  great  teacher,  a  polyglot  teacher  in 
many  dialects ;  and  nations  are  gathering  to  his  feet.  In 
his  lessons,  the  substance  is  of  the  old  unworn,  untorn 
gospel :  and  the  blessing  of  the  King  has  never  ceased  to 
fall,  fresh  and  fast,  on  the  readers  of  the  graj^hic,  witch- 
ing record.  Those  readers  include  all  ages  of  life,  all 
grades  of  culture,  the  grave  philosopher,  the  wary  theolo- 
gian, the  nursery-child,  and  the  aged  disciple,  bowed  and 
infirm,  who  hears  alread}^  the  rush  of  the  Dark  River, 
and  looks  hourly  for  the  Master's  summons  to  rise  and 
cross. 


XI. 


BAPTISTS  AND  MISSIONS 

25  T 


BAPTISTS  AND  MISSIONS. 


Paul  had  laid  him  down  to  rest  on  the  shores  of  Asia, 
upon  the  edge  of  the  Mgean  Sea,  and  confronting  the 
coasts  of  Europe.  It  is  in  Troas.  All  around  float 
memories  of  Homer,  and  of  the  war  that,  along  those 
beaches  and  waters,  the  hosts  and  fleets  of  Greece  had 
waged  against  Asiatic  Troy.  Between  the  two  coasts, 
European  and  Asiatic,  lies  the  island  of  Samothrace,  with 
its  towering  mountain,  about  five  thousand  feet  in  height, 
looking  down  upon  those  fields  where  now  Paul  slum- 
bered, and  where  once  Achilles  fought  and  Hector  fell. 
But  classic  bards  and  legends  have  lost  their  interest  for 
the  man  whom,  smitten  down  on  his  way  to  Damascus, 
the  Christ  has  transmuted  from  a  persecutor  to  an  apostle. 
In  the  visions  of  the  night,  a  man  of  Greek  origin  stands 
before  him,  and  as  a  hapless  seaman  from  the  side  of  a 
sinking  wreck  might,  through  night-gusts  and  driving 
rain,  shout  for  aid,  ere  it  should  be  too  late,  he  cries, 
"  Come  over  and  help  us."  It  is  a  cry  of  need  from  a  son 
of  Japheth  to  this  consecrated  son  of  Shem.  But  it  is 
not  a  Greek  of  the  old  Achaean  race ;  it  is  not  a  scholarly 
man  wearing  the  white  robe  of  the  Porch  or  of  the 
Academe  from  Athens  ;  or  a  stalwart  son  of  Sparta,  grim 
and  rude.     He  is   a  man   of   Macedonia,  that  part  of 

291 


292  LECTURES   OX    BArTIST    HISTORY. 

Greece  which  had  been  emerging  the  latest  into  fame,  and 
which  then  had  been  distinguished  for  bravery  rather 
than  intelligence.  To  the  rest  of  the  Greek  people  the 
jNIacedonians  were  much  like  what  the  stalwart,  brawny 
Highlander  from  his  moors  and  mists  would  be,  com- 
pared to  the  rest  of  the  British  people — the  manufacturers 
of  Glasgow,  or  the  students  of  Edinburgh,  or  the  shii)- 
builders  of  the  Clyde,  or  the  men  who  had  banks  and 
Avarehouses  and  docks  in  London.  Under  Alexander, 
this  portion  of  the  Grecian  race — these  Greek  Highland- 
ers— had  hurled  themselves  into  Asia;  and  its  old 
dynasties  and  populous  cities  had  gone  down  before  the 
Macedonian  phalanx,  as  the  house  of  cards  in  some 
nursery  goes  down  before  the  swoop  of  the  child's  arm. 
Babylon,  Persia,  India,  had  heard  the  wondrous  story  of 
that  invasion,  and  kept  yet  the  memorials  of  its  rapid 
and  irresistible  successes.  The  footprints  of  that  tramp- 
ing host  were  on  all  their  proudest  and  oldest  glories. 
What  has  a  conquering  host,  like  that  which  Alexander 
led,  to  do  with  distrust  or  need?  Is  the  mailed  warrior 
to  play  the  mendicant?  Need  forgets  all  ranks.  When 
a  ship  goes  down,  the  prince  may  be  glad  to  touch  the 
tarry  jacket  of  the  cabin-boy.  It  is  ever  so  ;  for  secular 
honors  and  advantages  may  consist  with  deepest  spirit- 
ual abasement  and  destitution.  Not  twenty  years  have 
gone  by  since  the  reputed  son  of  a  carpenter  rose  from 
a  borrowed  tomb,  under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  to  vindi- 
cate his  right  to  be  hailed  the  Light,  Redeemer,  and 
Judge  of  the  world;  and  had,  according  to  pledge,  sent 
out  his  Pentecostal  Spirit,  having  before  selected  his  apos- 


BAPTISTS    AND   MISSIONS.  293 

ties -and  given  them  charge  to  cvangehze  all  nations,  Gen- 
tile and  Jew  alike.  Paul  is  of  that  Hebrew  stock ;  has  seen 
by  special  revelation  that  Hebrew  ISIessiah ;  has  become 
an  apostle,  "  born  out  of  due  time ;"  has  preached  to  his 
countrymen,  the  Jews,  and  to  the  Asiatic  Gentiles  as  well; 
and  now  Euroj^e  sends  her  appeal  in  behalf  of  her  teem- 
ing Gentile  population  also.  By  her  stoutest  soldiers  she 
lifts  the  imploring  wail  for  relief. 

If  arts  could  save,  Greece  had  a  right  to  expect  salva- 
tion. If  arms  could  save,  the  Macedonian,  above  all  other 
Greeks,  might  well  arrogate  a  clear  hope  of  salvation.  But 
neither  arts  nor  arms ;  neither  Athenian  philosophies  nor 
Achaean  traditions ;  neither  monuments  nor  libraries, — 
could  bring  peace  for  the  burdened  conscience,  or  light 
for  the  soul  that  craves  and  yearns  to  know  God.  It  was 
a  voice  out  of  the  thick  darkness  hurling  itself  toward  the 
morning  light.  It  was  the  hoarse  shouting  of  ignorance 
and  guilt  and  hopeless  sorrow — a  need  that  demands  help, 
large,  prompt,  and  effectual — a  peril  that,  on  the  edge  of 
the  reef  and  under  the  white  breakers,  called,  trumpet- 
loud,  for  the  life-boat  to  be  manned  and  launched. 

It  is  Europe  demanding  that  Christian  Asia  should 
send  its  missionary  activities  thitherward.  Paul  gathers 
that  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  had  for  the  time  obstructed 
their  further  labors  in  Asia,  summoned  them  over  the  sea 
to  Europe.  He  goes.  Nor  is  his  interpretation  of  the  call 
unwarranted.  The  Holy  Ghost  sets  before  the  Christian 
teachers  an  open  door,  and  this  spiritual  Alexander  has 
troops  of  willing  captives  to  the  new  faith.  In  Thessa- 
lonica,  a  Macedonian  city,  he  wins  by  God's  blessing 
25  * 


294  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

numerous  converts ;  and  Avlien,  in  a  year  or  two,  he  has 
passed  to  another  part  of  Greece,  and  turns  to  address  his 
Christian  converts  in  Thessalonica — a  church  not  then 
two  years  old — to  them  he  writes  from  Corinth  his  letters, 
which  form  probably  the  earliest  of  all  the  leaves  of  the 
New  Testament.  Certainly,  nothing  but  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  can  claim  to  be  as  old;  and  the  date  of  Mat- 
thew's compositiori  varies  uncertainly''  from  a.  d.  50  to 
A.  D.  60,  and  has  no  fixed  period ;  but  the  letters  to  the 
Thessalonians  were  written  in  a.  d,  51  or  52,  according  to 
the  most  recent  chronologists.  The  vision  in  Troas  had 
been  the  precursor  of  most  glorious  triumphs.  In  holy 
gratitude,  the  apostle  exults*  over  those  who  received  the 
word  "  in  much  affliction  with  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  .  .  . 
For  from  you  sounded  out  the  word  of  the  Lord,  not  only 
in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  but  also  in  every  place  j^our 
faith  to  Godward  is  spread  abroad."  In  none  of  his  har- 
vest-fields does  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  seem  to 
find  as  much  unmingled  cause  of  content  as  in  these  first- 
fruits  of  Europe,  gathered  after  his  missionary  voyage 
from  Asia.  And  in  his  letter  to  the  Eoman  Christians  f 
he  speaks  of  the  prompt  sense  of  obligation  awakened  in 
these  European  converts  toward  their  Asiatic  evangelizers. 
"  It  hath  pleased  them  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia  to  make 
a  certain  contribution  for  the  poor  saints  which  are  at  Jerur 
salem.  It  hath  pleased  them,  verily ;  and  their  debtors 
they  are.  For  if  the  Gentiles  have  been  made  partakers 
of  their  spiritual  things,  their  duty  is  also  to  minister  unto 
them  in  carnal  things."  If  a  Christ,  born  in  the  tents  of 
*  1  Thess.  i.  5,  7,  8.  t  Romans  xv.  26,  27. 


BAPTISTS  AND   MISSIONS.  295 

Shem,  has,  by  apostles  bred  in  the  lore  and  scliools  of 
Shem,  been  brought  to  these  children  of  Japheth,  the 
proselyted  mission-field  might  well,  in  the  sense  of  fra- 
ternit}^  and  of  equity,  send  back  greetings  and  help  toward 
the  proselyting  camp  of  evangelists  and  apostles  on  those 
sacred  fields  of  Palestine. 

The  very  first  sheets— earliest  in  the  date  of  their  writ- 
ing— of  this  entire  New  Testament  are  the  story  of  mis- 
sionary adventure,  launching  from  one  continent  to  evan- 
gelize another.  They  tell  how  Asia  was  quitted  for  Europe 
by  primitive  zeal,  and  how  emphatically  the  European 
converts  recognized  the  new  brotherhood  thus  created,  and 
that  in  their  common  Ransomer  they,  the  kindred  of  Alex- 
ander's old  legions,  owned  themselves  the  debtors  to  men  of 
Palestine,  the  soil  whose  acres  Christ  had  trod,  and  whose 
people  had  brought  them  this  wondrous  light  of  salvation. 

If  the  Christian  church  in  our  day  would  forswear  for- 
eign missions  as  redundant,  you  will  see  how  she  must,  in 
consistency,  tear  asunder  the  volume  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment right  through  its  very  heart,  rending  the  Book  of 
Acts  out  of  the  New  Testament  histories,  and  shearing 
ofi"  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  first,  and  then  ex- 
scinding how  many  others,  with  these  two,  out  of  the  In- 
spired Letters  of  the  New  Dispensation. 

Yet  how  strangely,  and  at  a  date  comparatively  how 
recent,  have  the  Baptists  been  led  to  a  recognition  of  this 
great  Christian  duty.  Their  churches,  compared  with 
others,  of  little  worldly  endowment,  having  lost  in  Eng- 
land the  position  of  national  influence  which  they  had 
won  in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate, 


296  LECTURES    OX    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

they  had  yet  been  honored  of  God  with  faithful  preachers. 
From  one  of  these,  AVilliam  Carey — a  convert  under  the 
influence  of  the  labors  of  Thomas  Scott,  the  commentator 
— proceeded  under  God  the  impulse.  The  son  of  the  par- 
ish clerk  and  parish  schoolmaster,  under  great  disadvan- 
tages he  had  acquired  but  the  elements  of  learning,  and 
was  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker,  in  consequence  of  weak- 
ness that  was  thought  to  unfit  him  for  the  farm-work  to 
which  he  would  otherwise  have  passed.  Scott  himself  was 
brought  from  the  mazes  of  Socinianism  under  the  teach- 
ings of  John  Newton  of  Olney,  the  friend  of  Cowper;  and 
Newton  himself,  the  prodigal,  was  met  at  sea  and  amid  the 
slave-trade  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa ;  how  remote  and 
how  unlikely,  at  every  link  of  good  influence,  was  the  long 
chain,  that  yet,  in  God's  good  providence,  brought  the  old 
gospel  down  from  the  hammock,  where  Newton  had  at  first 
swung  as  a  profane  and  infidel  sailor,  to  the  humble  shoe- 
maker's shop,  where  Care}^  cobbled,  studied,  and  prayed. 
The  conquests  of  Clive  at  the  battle  of  Plassey  had,  in 
India,  converted  the  traders'  company  into  the  beginnings 
of  an  empire.  But  the  British  rulers  who  won  the  subject 
tribes  and  territory  little  heeded  the  language  of  the  peo- 
ple whom  they  subjected.  Clive,  it  is  said,  never  learned 
any  of  the  Indian  dialects  proper  of  the  various  peoples 
whom  he  led  to  conquest  or  reduced  to  subjection.  Of  one 
among  the  later  great  governors-general  of  India,  the  Mar- 
quis of  Wellesley,  the  brother  of  Wellington,  and  a  man 
of  large  intellect  and  wide  statesmanship,  it  is  told  by  an 
English  writer  on  India,*  that,  once  passing  through  the 
*  Mead's  Sepoy  Revolt. 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  297 

streets  of  a  great  Indian  city,  a  Brahmin,  with  the  dignity 
of  which  some  of  their  numher  are  such  masters,  cursed 
the  English  viceroy  in  the  name  of  all  the  gods  of  his 
country.  Wellesley,  though  described  by  the  narrator  as 
the  haughtiest  of  viceroys,  knew  so  little  of  the  lan- 
guage that  he  made  the  lowliest  reverence  to  the  Hindoo, 
in  utter  unconsciousness  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  salu- 
tation. It  was  the  aim  of  the  British  to  appropriate  the 
revenues  and  treasures  of  the  Indian  colony ;  but,  to  se- 
cure this,  it  was  matter  of  policy,  in  the  minds  of  their 
agents  generally,  to  avoid  aught  that  should  exasperate 
the  superstitious  prejudices  of  the  people.  Many,  even 
of  English  settlers,  gave  offerings  to  the  idol-temples ;  and 
some,  attached  to  heathen  mistresses,  gave  silent  or  eager 
aid  to  the  pagan  oblations  of  the  mothers  of  their  children. 
The  East  India  Company  was  bitterly  hostile  to  all  at- 
tempts to  interfere  with  the  faith  of  the  Hindoos.  Carey 
in  his  humble  shop  read  the  voyages  of  Cook;  and  the 
discovery  of  heathen  islands,  that  only  excited  the  curios- 
ity of  others,  awakened  his  Christian  sympathy  and  com- 
passion. He  constructed  for  his  school-children  a  rude 
map  of  the  globe,  describing  its  population  and  its  various 
and  erring  religions.  Become  a  pastor,  but  with  the  small- 
est stipend,  and  a  father  with  a  growing  family,  his  soul 
was  drawn  out  to  the  desolations  of  ancient  paganism. 

He  had  the  friendship  of  the  elder  Robert  Hall,  parent 
of  the  great  scholar  and  orator,  a  pastor  of  strong  mind 
and  clear  views ;  of  Sutcliffe,  another  country  pastor,  de- 
vout, sagacious,  and  earnest;  and  of  Ryland,  who  had 
baptized  him ;  and  of  Andrew  Fuller,  a  man  of  the  clear- 


298  LECTUEES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

est  and  strongest  intellect,  gravely,  solidly  pious,  and  yet 
of  few  literary  advantages.  To  these,  Carey's  suggestions 
for  heathen  evangelization  seemed  visionary,  and,  rather 
to  evade  the  topic,  they  proposed  his  putting  into  written 
form  his  thoughts  on  the  subject.  He  did  so.  Called  to 
preach  before  his  Association,  he  took  as  his  theme  a 
prophecy  of  Isaiah  (liv.  2,  3),  of  the  enlarged  tent  and 
lengthened  cords  that  were  to  take  in  the  Gentiles.  In 
1792,  he  preached  on  it  with  the  two  great  subdivisions, 
"  Expect  great  things  from  God,  and  attempt  great  things 
for  God."  It  led  to  the  formation  of  a  missionary  soci- 
ety at  Kettering,  the  seat  of  Fuller's  labors,  in  October, 
1792,  and  the  contributions  were  £13  2s.  6d.  Fuller 
was  its  secretary,  Carey  was  its  offered  missionar}'. 
The  church  of  the  devout  Pearce  of  Birmingham  added 
a  sum  of  £70,  quintupling  the  original  funds.  Yet  how, 
to  any  other  than  the  simplest,  strongest  faith,  must  the 
enterprise  have  seemed  one  of  sovereign  absurdity — that 
of  attempting  with  these  puniest  means  to  assail  the  faith 
of  pagan  India  and  a  population  of,  perhaps,  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions. 

But  the  churches  enlisted  were  country  churches.  The 
London  Baptists,  when  consulted,  generall}'-  stood  aloof 
Stennett,  to  whose  pulpit  ministrations  Howard  expressed 
such  warm  gratitude  and  reverence,  could  not  be  brought 
to  favor  it.  The  elder  Ryland,  the  father  of  Carey's  friend, 
a  scholar  and  author,  a  man  of  genius  and  piety,  and  of 
whom  the  statesman  William  Windham  makes  respectful 
mention,  had  cried  with  some  indignation  when  the  proj- 
ect was  by  Carey  named  to  him :  "Young  man,  when  God 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  299 

would  have  the  heathen  converted,  he  will  do  it  without 
your  aid  or  mine."  With  small  children,  his  wife  averse 
to  the  voyage,  his  way  shut  up  as  to  passage  in  one  of  the 
East  India  Company's  vessels,  Carey  persisted,  and  se- 
cured, at  last,  embarkation  in  a  Danish  keel,  his  wife 
consenting  finally  to  sail  if  her  sister,  who  was,  however, 
equally  with  herself,  unbelieving  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
undertaking,  would  accompany  her.  Thus  freighted  with 
discouragement,  Carey  set  sail. 

When  the  question  of  permitting  Christian  missionaries 
in  their  possessions  came  up  before  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  that  great  mercantile  body,  one  of  the  directors,  depict- 
ing the  tumult  it  would  excite,  said,  that  he  would  see 
a  band  of  devils  let  loose  in  India  rather  than  a  band 
of  missionaries.  Perchance  eyes  of  keener  and  celestial 
vision  already  saw  his  wish  at  work ;  for  the  population 
of  India  counting  but  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions, 
its  subordinate  deities,  according  to  their  own  Brahmins, 
were  in  number  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions,  or  an 
average  of  two  separate  deities  to  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  of  the  teeming  myriads  of  the  vast  region. 

The  East  India  Company  was  a  most  potent  body  in  its 
wealth  and  its  patronage  and  its  parliamentary  influence 
at  home.  Burke  and  Sheridan  had  assailed  one  of  its 
favored  governors,  Warren  Hastings ;  and  after  a  trial  of 
years,  marked  by  the  most  resplendent  exhibitions  of  tal- 
ent and  eloquence,  and  after  fearful  evidence  produced  of 
malversation  and  oppression,  such  orators,  with  such  wit- 
nessings,  had  failed  to  secure  his  conviction.  Charles 
James  Fox,  a  statesman  of  great  powers  and  signal  pop- 


300  LECTURES    ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ularit}'',  had  devised,  with  the  aid  of  Burke,  a  new  charter 
hy  an  India  Bill.  Not  that  Fox  favored  missionaries;  for 
when  consulted,  he  disajDproved  them.  But  the  British 
Parliament  and  the  nation  and  the  Court  were  against  the 
India  Bill  of  Fox,  however  skilful  its  framing  or  vigorous 
its  advocacy ;  and  it  failed. 

On  his  arrival,  Carey  found  himself  shut  up,  after  vari- 
ous experiments  in  indigo-culture,  to  a  refuge  in  the  small 
Danish  settlement  of  Serampore,  an  independent  region 
of  small  extent,  but  near  the  English  capital  of  Calcutta, 
Here  he  set  up  a  j)ress,  which  in  Calcutta  even  Wellesley 
would  not  then  have  permitted.  His  wife  became  insane ; 
his  fellow-laborer  Thomas  also  insane.  With  these  sor- 
rows on  either  hand  under  the  roof,  he  went  forth  to  the 
baptism  of  his  first  convert.  Had  not  the  faith  of  a  pres- 
ent Christ  and  the  power  of  an  Almighty  Spirit  sustained 
the  laborer,  human  zeal  might  well  have  faltered  when  in 
circumstances  so  forlorn,  after  seven  years  of  toil,  he  led 
down  his  first  convert  to  baptism  in  Christ's  name.  But 
as  he  said,  he  could  plod ;  and  plod  he  did,  till  God 
turned  hearts  toward  him  in  the  India  of  his  chosen  res- 
idence and  in  the  Britain  which  he  was  no  more  to  see. 
He  became  a  Sanscrit  scholar,  greater  than  Sir  William 
Jones,  who  had  been  the  first  of  Englishmen  to  lead  in 
that  new  field.  He  completed,  in  the  modern  and  feebler 
language  of  the  people  around  him,  a  Bengalee  Bible,  and 
its  finishing  was  occasion  to  him  of  profound  and  devout 
joy.  God  gave  him  fellow-laborers,  Marshman  and  Ward. 
The  favor  of  Wellesley,  the  governor-general,  was  drawn 
toward  him.     He  received,  though  a  Dissenter,  an  appoint- 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  .  301 

mcnt  as  professor  in  the  college  which  \\^ellesley  set  up, 
"without  tlic  authority,  and  even  against  the  protests,  of  the 
East  India  Company,  under  whoiii  he  acted.  Strong  in 
his  own  energy  and  in  the  friendship  of  the  younger  Pitt, 
"W'ellesley  j)ersevered,  and  brought  forward  also  his  more 
illustrious  brother,  afterward  to  be  known  as  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  who,  on  the  field  of  Assaye,  on  Indian 
soil,  began  the  fame  so  emphasized  in  Spain  and  on  the 
field  of  Waterloo. 

But  besides  the  complications  encountered  thus  in  the 
East  India  Company,  the  opponents  of  missions  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  then  the  highest  organ  of  British  litera- 
ture, by  the  witty  Sydney  Smith,  commenced  an  attack  on 
the  whole  evangelizing  enterprise,  as  endangering  the  lives 
of  every  Englishman,  and  as  one  that  ought  to  be  forth- 
with and  ruthlessly  suppressed.  Some  of  the  older  of  us 
may  recollect  a  time  when  the  ill  words  of  that  great 
journal  stirred  up  the  wrath  of  all  our  country,  as  it  asked 
scornfully,  "Who  reads  an  American  book?"  It  was  a 
blessed  and  Christian  revenge  on  the  maligners  of  mis- 
sions, which,  in  God's  good  providence,  the  mission  and 
mission  family  took  upon  these  their  priestly  and  Parlia- 
mentary revilers,  Avhen  a  son-in-law  of  this  same  INIarsh- 
man,  the  gallant  Ha velock— "every  inch  a.  soldier,  and 
every  inch  a  Christian,"  as  Sir  Henry  Harding  called  him 
— pushing  his  Avay  against  such  overwhelming  odds, 
relieved  Lucknow,  and  saved  to  the  British  Crown,  under 
God,  an  empire  which  Smith  had  said  the  missionaries 
Avere  sure  to  overthrow.  Putting  to  silence  the  ignorance 
of  foolish    men   by  patient  continuance  in  well-doing  is 

26 


302  LECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

apostolic.  But  it  requires  apostolic  zeal  and  endurance  to 
obey  a  precept  so  calmly  brave.  The  number  of  versions 
of  the  Bible  that  in  part  or  entire  Carey  and  his  coadjutors 
completed  is  wondrous.  His  brother-laborer,  Marshman, 
framed  a  Chinese  version  of  the  Bible.  These  may  be 
superseded,  just  as  AVyclifFe's  and  Tyndal's  and  Cover- 
dale's  have  been,  in  our  own  tongue.  But  they  did  a 
good  work;  and  nations  have  been  glad  for  them,  and 
heaven  has  been  made  the  richer  in  its  tenantry  by  their 
means,  in  the  converts  they  have  won. 

Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward,  of  their  earnings  in 
various  ways,  gave  to  the  mission  cause  to  the  amount  of 
£40,000 — probably,  when  the  relative  value  of  money 
then  and  now  is  considered,  nigh  $300,000  of  our  money 
at  present  rates.  They  reared  a  college.  Bishop  Hebcr, 
a  churchman  and  Christian  prelate,  writing  on  Indian 
soil,  publicly  lauded  the  services  and  character  of  the 
men  whom  Sydney  Smith  had  so  blackened. 

American  Baptists  had  purposed  to  continue  as  they 
had  begun,  to  aid  their  English  brethren  by  collections 
raised  here  and  transmitted  thither.  But  God,  in  his 
gracious  arrangements,  raised  up  Adoniram  Judson,  a 
man  of  high  endoAvments,  rare  energy,  and  true  piety. 
He  left  our  shores  a  Paidobaptist,  studied  the  Bible,  and 
on  reaching  Serampore  was  a  convert  to  our  views  of  the 
ordinances  and  church.  Without  further  resources  from 
the  Pcedobaptist  body  before  sustaining  him,  he  was  ad- 
vised to  apply  to  the  English  Baptists.  But  God  put  it 
into  the  hearts  qf  him  and  his  fellow-missionary  and  con- 
vert, Luther  Rice,  to   appeal  to  the  American  churches. 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  303 

Our  own  body  found  themselves  suddenly  called  to  a 
work  which  they  had  not  planned.  It  was  like  Paul's 
Macedonian  voyage,  a  Providence  beckoning  and  leading 
the  blind  by  a  way  which  they  for  themselves  had  not 
known.  Turned  from  British  India,  where  Judson  was 
not  allowed  by  the  jealousy  still  felt  against  missionaries 
to  remain,  he  went  perforce  to  Burmah.  It  had  been 
a  field  for  a  time  tilled  by  Felix  Care}',  but  who,  favored 
by  the  Burmese  government,  had  accepted  an  aj^point- 
ment  as  the  Burmese  envoy  to  the  British  Indian  govern- 
ment; thus,  as  the  good  father  complained,  sinking  from 
a  missionary  to  an  ambassador.  Tlie  younger  Carey's 
labors  had  not  much  facilitated  the  missionary  toils  of 
Judson.  His  heroic  endurance;  his  imprisonment;  his 
impending  death  in  the  wars  between  thejealous  Burmese 
and  British  invading  armies;  the  sickness  of  his  wife; 
his  carrying  his  nursling  babe  from  heathen  door  to  door, 
imploring  that  some  Burmese  mother  would  sustain  its 
waning,  wailing  life ;  his  having  his  great  manuscript 
version  of  the  Bible  rolled  up  as  a  log  and  laid  under 
his  head  as  a  pillow  in  his  prison,  to  disguise  it  from 
his  pagan  tormentors  and  jailers ;  the  death  of  babe 
and  mother, — all  these  are  parts  of  missionary  history 
familiar  to  all. 

The  churches  gathered  in  the  Karen  people,  the  death 
of  Judson's  heroic  coadjutor,  Boardman,  who  labored  es- 
pecially for  them,  after  being  carried  in  joining  consump- 
tion to  see,  at  the  river,  the  baptism  of  several  con- 
verted heathen. — these,  too,  we  can  but  recount  hastily; 
and  the  deaths  of  others  of  the  band ;  and  the  sheaves, 


304  T.ECTURES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

large  and  rapid,  they  were  permitted  to  gather,  are  tliey 
not  too  familiar  to  bear  prolonged  recital? 

Then  came  the  death  of  Judson  at  sea  with  such  un- 
conquerable exhaustion  of  bodily  strength,  and  yet  such 
salient  joy  of  soul,  that  he  felt,  with  all  his  ties  to  home 
and  life,  as  he  viewed  eternit}',  the  joy  of  a  schoolboy 
going  from  tasks  and  vigils  to  the  old  dear  homestead. 
These  are  among  the  illustrations  God  has  given  to  show 
that  he  loves  not  his  servants  to  war  a  warfare  at  their 
own  charges  or  without  present  and  rare  refreshments 
of  spirit  b}^  the  way. 

The  English  missions  were  sustained  at  home  by  men 
of  rare  worth  and  power.  Fuller,  a  man  of  great  solidity 
and  force  of  mind,  had  dreaded  fashion  and  wealth  as 
either  sustaining  or  controlling  the  missionary  work. 
As  he  used  grimly  to  say  at  the  beginning,  they  had  no 
"  resj^ectable  "  people  to  countenance  them — no  capitalist 
in  the  chair  at  the  annual  meetings,  to  whom  orations 
might  be  addressed.  Himself  a  theologian  of  rare  com- 
pass and  force,  his  Avord,  from  pulpit  and  press,  was  a 
power  in  the  church,  and  felt  occasionally  in  the  English 
Parliament  even.  When  some  "old  Indian" — to  use  tlie 
British  phrase  for  a  wealth}^  resident  of  the  East  returned 
to  Britain — had  begun  a  war  of  pamphlets  against  the 
mission.  Fuller  was  prompt  to  reph%  and  the  man  who 
encountered  him  in  argument  generally  bore  the  marks 
of  a  bludgeon  from  the  encounter.  A  lover,  in  his  youth- 
ful impenitent  days,  of  wrestling,  he  confessed  to  a  Scot- 
tish friend.  Dr.  John  Brown,  father  of  the  accomplished 
author  of  Eab  and  his  Friends,  that  his  fanc}^  sometimes, 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  305 

even  in  the  desk,  as  the  eye  fell  on  some  stalwart  form 
moving  along  the  aisle,  would  ask  how  such  a  man  would 
stand  a  tussle.  When  a  Prendergast,  a  member  of  the 
British  Parliament,  in  the  course  of  a  heated  discussion 
of  missions,  asseverated  that  he,  who  had  been  in  India, 
knew  that  Carey  preached  from  a  tub  in  the  streets  of 
Calcutta,  and  the  heathen  were  so  excited  that  he  could 
only  by  flight  escape  their  violence,  Fuller,  knowing  that 
it  was  altogether  at  variance  with  Carey's  habits  and  cha- 
racter, published  a  letter  sturdily  denying  the  truth  of 
the  statement.  Prendergast,  a  noted  duellist,  inquired  of 
the  good  Wilberforce,  who  in  Parliament  eloquently  and 
fearlessly  advocated  our  missions,  who  this  Andrew  Ful- 
ler was,  intimating  that  he  intended  to  challenge  him  to 
an  encounter  on  the  field  of  honor.  Wilberforce  smil- 
ingly assured  him  that  he  knew  Fuller,  but  that  he  was 
not  a  man  who  could  be  moved  to  such  a  conference. 

Another  of  our  British  worthies  was  the  younger  Eob- 
ert  Hall,  of  whom  his  tutor.  Professor  Dugald  Stewart, 
said,  that  his  style  had  the  excellences  of  Johnson  and 
Addison  without  the  faults  of  either.  Sir  James  Mack- 
intosh, himself  a  philosopher  and  statesman  of  the  high- 
est order,  said,  that  men  could  not  understand  why  all 
Greece  flocked  to  Demosthenes,  until  they  had  listened 
to  Robert  Hall.  Bishop  Bloomfield,  holding  the  diocese 
of  London,  was  recognized,  when  Greek  scholarship  ruled 
British  literature,  to  be,  after  the  death  of  Porson  and  of 
Parr,  the  first  Greek  scholar  of  all  England.  Of  him  it  is 
said  by  his  son  and  biographer,  that  he  was  accustomed 
to  keep  the  works  of  Hall  on  his  study-table  as  a  model 


806  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

in  his  hours  of  composing.  The  elder  Bulwer,  in  one  of 
his  fictions,  introduces  Hall  as  a  wondrous  example  of 
powers  highl}'-  developed,  and  pain  intense  and  exhaust- 
ive meanwhile  patiently  borne.  Greg,  a  contemporane- 
ous writer  of  our  own  times,  and  of  skeptical  views,  yet 
takes  occasion  to  rate  Hall  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Christian  writers  in  his  time.  Now,  Hall,  though  less  the 
advocate  from  the  press,  was  the  friend  and  eulogist,  of 
our  English  Indian  missionaries.  He  threw  down  the 
gauntlet  in  a  very  stinging  sentence  to  Smith  regarding 
his  Review,  but  Smith  never  ventured  to  lift  the  glove  and 
enter  the  lists.  His  friends  say,  that  Smith  regretted  the 
attack,  but  he  never  had  the  grace  to  withdraw  and  sup- 
press it.  Intended  to  pillory  its  meek  victims,  it  has  sur- 
vived to  brand  its  author  as  a  false  prophet — a  Balaam, 
who  cursed  as  heartily  as  an  Indian  Balak  could  desire 
him,  but  who,  less  Avise  than  the  seer,  had  forgotten  to 
ask  himself,  "  How  shall  I  defy  whom  the  Lord  hath  not 
defied?" 

On  our  shores  we  have  had,  in  Thomas  Roberts  and 
Evan  Jones  and  his  son,  laborers  among  the  Cherokee 
Indians,  first  in  their  Georgia  home  and  then  in  their 
transfer  to  the  Indian  Territory ;  and  to  the  latest  laborer 
the  tribes  are  indebted  for  a  Cherokee  translation  of  the 
New  Testament.  Native  laborers  of  great  excellence  and 
devotedness  and  of  wide  usefulness  have  been  raised  up. 

The  Welsh  of  Britain  liave  sent  to  the  Bretons  of 
France  a  laborer  who  has  many  years  toiled  in  that 
antique  and  picturesque  part  of  the  French  territory  and 
nation,  and  given  them  in  their  own  loved  Breton  dialect 


BAPTISTS  AND   MISSIONS.  307 

a  New  Testament.  The  success  in  conversions  has  not 
yet  been  large,  but  the  late  distinguished  Emile  Souvestre 
was  said  in  his  later  days  to  have  invited  the  visits  and 
teachings  of  this  faithful  missionary. 

The  labors  of  Oncken  in  Germany  and  their  widely- 
branching  influence  over  Sweden  and  Poland  and  Russia 
must  be  familiar.  Not  by  building  on  the  old  founda- 
tions of  the  German  and  Swiss  Anabaptists,  but  in  inde- 
pendent toil  and  teaching,  his  great  success  has  under 
God's  blessing  been  achieved. 

The  establishment  and  increase  of  Baptist  churches  in 
Sweden,  through  the  efficient  labors  of  Wiberg  and  his 
coadjutors,  forms  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  in 
the  history  of  our  missions  in  Europe.  More  than  two 
hundred  churches  and  over  ten  thousand  members  are 
successfully  pleading,  in  that  country,  for  the  spirituality 
of  the  churches,  such  as  the  Lord  designed  them  to  be ; 
for  the  observance  of  the  ordinances  as  he  established 
them ;  and  for  soul-liberty  as  the  indefeasible  heritage  of 
all  Christian  men.* 

In  Greece,  our  mission  has  been  withdrawn.  In  Spain, 
it  trembles,  amid  the  present  political  convulsions,  on  the 
verge  of  a  temporary  suppression,  as  seems  probable.     In 

*  The  work  in  Sweden  was  first  commenced,  in  1855,  by  the  Amer- 
ican Baptist  Publication  Society,  who  appointed  the  Rev.  Andreas 
"Wiberg  superintendent  of  colportage.  Though  meeting  witli  perse- 
cution and  difficulties,  the  work  has  gone  steadily  on,  and  each  year 
bears  witness  to  large  additions  to  their  churches,  while  very  many  of 
their  numbers  are  seeking  a  home  and  a  field  of  Christian  labor  in  our 
own  land. — Editor. 


308  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

Paris  and  Lyons,  after  many  early  discouragements  we  are 
now  to  all  human  appearance  firmly  planted,  with  more 
hopes  of  success. 

To  Western  Africa,  God  sent  in  an  early  stage  Lot  Carey 
from  Virginia,  a  man  of  color,  but  one  of  heroic  mould, 
taken  away  in  middle  life  by  a  sudden  explosion.  Our 
Southern  colored  churches  are  a  vast  opportunity  and  a 
vast  responsibility. 

As  to  the  work  remaining  to  be  accomplished^  it  seems  to 
some  Quixotic  to  look  forward  to  a  universal  reception  of 
the  gospel.  We  see  naught  to  secure  it  but  God's  grace ;  for 
that  agency  we  are  slow  to  think  any  task,  however  wide, 
to  be  impossible.  Carey's  project  of  assailing  India  seemed, 
to  casual  reason,  a  fatuity  founded  on  sheer  ignorance. 
Later  observers  have  learned  to  think  very  differently. 
The  English  government,  once  bitterly  inimical,  is  now 
by  many  of  its  civil  and  military  appointees  warmly 
favorable  to  missions.  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  and  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence,  and  Sir  John  Lawrence  have  been  among 
Christian  rulers  not  ashamed  of  their  faith  before  the 
pride  of  Brahminism,  and  not  slow  to  express  large 
hopes.  The  worst  foe  of  English  domination  in  the 
Sepoy  war  was  the  Mohammedan  fanaticism.  If  the 
educated  Hindoos  were  to  be  Christians,  they  would  be 
the  best  safeguard.  A  Hindoo  gentleman  of  English  edu- 
cation, but  without  Christian  faith,  has  said  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans, the  old  oppressors  of  his  people,  that  even 
now  they  are  three-fourths  ruffian  and  one-fourth  volup- 
tuary in  their  personal  character.  If  this  be  a  prevalent 
judgment,  the  co-operation  of  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan 


BAPTISTS  AND   MISSIONS.  309 

is  not  likel}'  to  be  hearty  in  uprisings  against  British 
sovereignty. 

A  revival  of  ^lohammedanism  is  among  the  probabil- 
ities of  the  age.  Some  have  advocated  the  recognition  of 
the  prophetic  character  of  the  great  Arab  leader.  We  see 
no  ground  for  the  verdict,  and  no  hope  of  prosperity  in 
admitting  the  delusion.  Our  own  church  in  the  last  Se- 
poy war  had  a  converted  Mohammedan  confessor,  AValay- 
at  Ali,  who  became  a  martyr  rather  than  deny  Christ  at 
Delhi,  one  great  focal-point  of  the  revolt. 

Dr.  Pfander,  under  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  has 
had  converts  of  this  class.  We  trust  that  they  may  be 
multiplied ;  but  the  probabilities  are  that  Mohammedan- 
ism will  make  a  fierce  and  bloody  end. 

So,  as  to  Judaism,  some  deny  the  fact  of  its  acceptabil- 
ity. Our  own  denomination,  in  the  times  of  the  Common- 
wealth, had  a  learned  Jew,  Du  Veil,  author  of  books  of 
true  ability,  who  became,  after  passing  through  Eoman- 
ism,  a  convert  to  our  views  of  polity.  In  our  oAvn  coun- 
try we  had  Frey,  a  man  of  sincerity  and  earnestness, 
though  his  judgment  was  not  always  equal  to  his  zeal. 
The  generation  that  has  seen  Neander,  with  his  vast  erudi- 
tion, his  childlike  simplicity,  and  his  deeji  philosophy,  a 
humble  learner  of  Christ's  gospel,  will  not  believe  the  im- 
possibility of  similar  conversions.  The  philosophic  Men- 
delsohn resisted  the  appeals  of  Lavater ;  but  Mendelsohn's 
descendant,  the  accomplished  and  most  amiable  musical 
composer,  was  regarded  as  a  sincere  Christian. 

We  have  Infidelity,  but  its  forms  are  Protean,  and  its 
prophecies,  many  and  confident,  have  been  signally  and 


310  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

repeatedly  confuted  in  the  actual  results  of  Providence. 
God  has  spoken,  man  may  trust.  Christ  has  home  the 
weight  of  the  missionary  undertaking  in  his  own  Incar- 
nation and  Sacrifice  and  Resurrection  and  Ascension.  All 
that  I'emains,  in  comparison  with  this,  is  but  petty  detail. 
We  cannot  dismiss  the  hopes  of  the  churches,  or  relin- 
quish the  task  of  the  churches,  Avithout  disregarding  the 
pledges  of  him  who  is  the  Infinite  Truth,  and  the  cov- 
enant of  him  who  wields  a  Limitless  Omnipotence. 

One  of  the  great  questions  of  our  times  is  how  to  recon- 
cile the  two  warring  classes  of  "  Haves "  and  "  Wants." 
In  the  shape  of  Socialism  and  in  the  dread  form  of  the 
Commune,  as  the  late  troubles  in  France  saw  it  inaugu- 
rated, how  fearful  is  the  collision  and  how  inevitable  the 
general  ruin  when  Labor  looks  askance  on  all  the  gains 
of  Capital,  and  when  Capital  learns  to  harden  its  heart 
and  close  its  ears  against  the  protests  and  claims  of  Toil. 
The  despotisms  of  the  Old  World,  in  Egypt  and  India, 
have  known  the  fearful  effect  of  Castes,  isolated  and  mutu- 
ally repellent  and  distrustful,  the  one  of  the  other;  but, 
amid  the  advantages  and  progress  of  modern  civilization, 
if  castes  be  formed,  men  of  envious  greed  on  the  one  side 
and  obdurate  pride  on  the  other  side,  it  is  certain  that  no 
policies  can  long  avert  a  forcible  collision,  and  the  result 
of  it  must  be  mutual  carnage  and  national  devastation. 
Visit  a  prison,  however  well  ordered,  and  you  see  in  its 
tenants,  there  immured,  the  men  who,  in  disregard  of  the 
rights,  property,  liberties,  and  lives  of  their  fellows,  made 
their  own  fancied  and  passionate  Want  the  law,  and  then 
flung  themselves  on  the  resources  of  their  neighbors,  the 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  311 

clan  of  the  "Haves,"  and  proposed  or  effected  such 
wrongs  and  woes,  that  Society,  for  its  own  protection, 
must  put  them  within  walls  and  under  the  charge  of 
prison-guards.  So,  in  political  life,  how  sure  is  the  result 
to  be  social  destruction  when  the  needs  of  a  party  or  its 
leaders  trample  down  the  barriers  of  law. 

Commerce  has  sometimes  comforted  itself  with  the 
delusion  that  in  its  exchanges  mutual  wants  assuredly 
and  peacefully  met  and  relieved  each  other,  and  that  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand,  if  left  with  an  unchecked 
freedom,  would  bring  general  abundance  and  the  ease  and 
welfare  of  all  nations.  But  when  the  enterprise  of  our 
own  manufacturers  and  traders  sends— as  was  not  many 
years  since  done— casks  of  New  England  rum  in  the  same 
keels  that  bore  to  the  Turk  and  his  Christian  subjects  New 
England  missionaries,  was  the  free-trade  healthful  or  bale- 
ful ?  When  Christian  Britain  has  forged,  in  her  Birming- 
ham workshops,  idols  for  the  East  Indian  market ;  or  raised 
on  Indian  soil  opium  to  be  forced,  under  British  treaties 
and  British  fleets,  upon  the  reluctant  and  protesting  hea- 
then of  China,  was  the  free  "  supply  "  to  the  idolatrous 
and  diseased  "  demand  "  honorable  to  the  national  name 
or  honest  to  the  national  creed?  When,  in  years  very 
recent,  vessels  in  southern  seas,  to  propitiate  heathen  isl- 
anders, vessels  manned  by  British  commanders  and  sail- 
ors, went  in  quest  of  human  heads— a  coveted  trophy 
prized  by  some  of  these  islanders  as  won  from  others  of 
their  heathen  neighbors— and  in  consequence  of  the  blind 
rage  of  the  savages  whose  shores  had  thus  been  invaded, 
the  noble  career  of  a  young  English  bishop,  John  Cole- 


312  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ridge  Patterson,  was  sacrificed,  the  islanders  requiting  on 
the  Christian  Briton  the  wrongs  sufiered  hy  themselves 
from  the  trading  Britons,  Avas  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  guiltless  of  that  martyr's  blood?  Had  British 
traffickers  any  right  to  clutch  gain  in  such  methods,  and 
to  bring  down  on  their  country  such  cruel  requitals  ? 

So,  in  the  dealings  of  the  civilized  with  the  barbarian 
on  our  own  shore,  have  our  Indians,  when  their  lands 
tempted  our  cuj)idity,  found  us  always  mindful  of  the 
faith  of  treaties  and  of  the  laws  of  common  justice?  The 
early  Puritan  worthy,  left  on  the  British  shores,  regretted, 
as  he  said,  when  told  of  some  Indians  slain,  that  they 
had  not  converted  some  before  they  had  killed  any.  In 
the  early  wars  of  our  Revolution,  when  the  Moravian 
Indians  were  so  mercilessly  butchered  in  that  very  colony 
which  in  its  early  stages  and  by  its  first  founder,  William 
Penn,  had  exhibited  such  kindliness  and  studious  equity 
to  the  red  man,  was  there  not  a  manifestation  of  cruel 
greed  and  reckless  hate  that  may  well  be  deplored  and 
made  cause  of  national  humiliation  and  abasement? 
When,  in  Southern  Africa,  the  boors  of  Hollander  origin 
burst  in  on  the  peaceful  missionaiy  settlement  of  David 
Livingstone,  enraged  against  methods  that  kept  them  from 
appropriating  the  lands  and  herds,  and  from  compelling 
the  slave-drudgery,  of  his  converts,  was  there  not  hugest 
wrong?  And  in  how  many  wars  of  this  kind  in  our  own 
nation  has  treasure  been  lavished  and  life  sacrificed,  with 
a  recklessness  and  profusion  that  can  expect  no  benedic- 
tion from  God,  when  good  faith  and  patience  and  kindli- 
ness would  have  been  economical  and  safe?     Civilization 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  313 

and  Lil)crty  and  Progress  are  lofty  words ;  but  they  can- 
not hide  the  enormity  and  the  terrible  perilousness  of 
craving  thus — because  our  fellow-man  is  of  other  hue  or 
of  inferior  culture — his  country  and  his  life,  that  Ahab 
may  round  out  his  territories  from  the  confiscated  portion 
of  Naboth. 

The  gospel  brings,  in  its  remedy  for  these  evils,  a  metliod 
of  relief  as  potent  as  it  is  simple.  It  teaches  us  to  look 
upward,  seeing  in  the  common  Maker  and  Father  the 
source  of  jill  good.  What  we  have  we  hold  from  him,  the 
pensioners  ourselves  of  his  bounty,  intended  to  be  the 
stewards,  in  his  service,  for  the  behoof  of  our  fellows. 
The  shepherd-lad  who,  in  the  eighth  Psalm,  looks  up- 
ward from  the  hillsides  of  Palestine,  and,  watching  the 
stars,  exclaims,  "  When  I  consider  thy  heavens,  .  .  .  the 
moon  and  the  stars,  what  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful 
of  him,  and  the  son  of  man  that  thou  visitest  him " 
(Psalms  viii.  8,  4),  saw,  centuries  ago,  that  the  highest 
glory  of  his  race  was  that  they  had  a  God  mindful  of 
them,  and  "  visiting  "  them  by  revelations  and  ultimately 
by  his  Incarnation.  He  belongs,  when  brought  into  that 
school,  to  a  class  who  have  as  their  loftiest  privilege  a 
Maker  to  be  their  Caretaker,  "  mindful  "  in  his  providence 
of  their  meanest  needs ;  and  if  in  his  government  "  visit- 
ing" them  with  seasonable  checks  and  reproofs  and  chas- 
tisements, yet  also,  with  these,  adding  high  benedictions 
and  intertwining  the  great  boon  of  a  Redeemer,  human, 
atoning,  and  restoring;  and  preparing  them  by  his  lessons 
and  grace  to  "  visit "  himself  ultimately  in  the  heaven  of 
yet  higher  glories.     Thus  schooled,  David  came  to  be  the 

27 


314  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

champion  of  his  people,  as,  before  him,  a  Joseph  had  been 
the  blessing  of  all  Egypt,  and  a  Moses  the  guide  of  the 
Exodus  and  the  leader  toward  the  Promised  Land.  The 
men  who  know  what  they  have  in  God  knoAV  also  what 
they  need  or  want,  and  what  is  the  common  necessity 
and  what  the  common  refuge  of  their  contemporaries  and 
countrymen — a  knowledge  and  a  fear  of  the  same  God. 

In  the  gospel,  which  finishes  the  Bible,  and  rounds  the 
discoveries  of  our  needs  and  the  rent-roll  of  our  privileges, 
man  is  taught,  that  in  God's  grace  are  set  before  him  and 
before  his  whole  race  the  loftiest  hopes  and  the  gravest 
duties.  He  is  proffered  in  Christ  a  free  pardon  and  a 
finished  righteousness ;  and  the  command  then  comes  to 
the  regenerated  believer,  "  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely 
give."  You  hold,  by  the  law  of  grace  from  heaven ;  you 
keep,  by  the  law  of  graciousness  toward  earth.  Loved  of 
Christ,  you  are  in  his  strength  to  love  your  neighbor,  the 
forlorn,  the  remote,  tlie  savage,  the  unloving,  and  the 
naturally  unlovel3^  Their  want,  in  the  depth  of  their 
ignorance  and  the  blackness  of  their  wretchedness,  is  an 
appeal  to  your  Christian  compassion.  Thus  taught,  the 
want  of  our  fellow-mortals  demands  no  impossible  com- 
niunity  of  goods,  no  fanciful  and  immoral  socialism,  that 
would  sacrifice  liberty,  progress,  and  order,  the  peace  of 
the  household,  and  the  advance  of  the  nation.  But  as 
Brainard,  in  the  smoky  wigwam  of  the  savage,  fetid  and 
dark,  consoled  himself  in  God,  and  received  strength  to 
endure  and  to  witness  and  to  win ;  as  Henry  Marty n,  the 
prize-man  of  an  English  university,  stood  amid  the  chat- 
tering and  benighted  beggars  of  Hindostan,  serene,  loving. 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  315 

and  compassionate ;  as  Judson,  expelled  from  British 
India  and  driven  in  upon  heathen  Burmah,  after  suffer- 
ing inconceivably  from  hope  delayed  and  sacrifices  pa- 
tiently home,  became,  in  critical  days,  a  translator  and 
a  mediating  ambassador  in  the  interests  of  the  British 
people  who  had  once  expelled  him,  and  of  the  Burman 
people  who  had  but  recently'  ordered  his  butchery,  repay- 
ing to  Christian  and  to  heathen  wrongers  their  ill-doings 
by  kind  doings, — did  not  each  of  these  holy  men — Brain- 
ard,  Martyn,  and  Judson — show  how  the  Haves  may 
most  winningly  and  most  heroically  turn,  in  some 
critical  season,  upon  the  clan  of  the  Wants,  and  in 
Christ's  own  temper  and  in  Christ's  train  put  down  evil 
by  good,  and  overcome  misconstructions  and  enmit}^  and 
greed  and  outrage  by  the  love  that  beareth  all  things  and 
hopeth  all  things  and  endureth  all  things  ? 

Prayer,  against  which  many  in  our  times  are  so  unrea- 
sonably prejudiced,  is  the  longing  of  a  filial  want  on  the 
earth,  appealing  with  boldness  and  gladness  and  rever- 
ence to  a  parental  have  upon  the  throne  of  heaven.  It 
is  but  want  feeling  its  needs  lessened  and  its  woes  re- 
lieved and  its  gloom  irradiated,  in  the  very  act  of 
approach.  It  has  obtained  grace  for  grace,  and  in  the 
answers  it  receives  it  becomes  a  true  member  of  the  great 
tribe  of  the  Haves.  With  God  around  and  God  before  it, 
it  inherits  in  Christ  all  things. 

Thus  taught,  the  Christian  becomes  more  diligent, 
cheerful,  and  successful.  His  prayers,  aided  by  a  free 
Spirit  and  built  on  a  sure  Scripture,  take  hold  on  the 
prophecies   and  are    upheld    by   the  providence   of   an 


316  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

almighty  Ruler  and  a  Parent  of  unerring  prescience  and 
of  exhaustless  beneficence. 

Among  these  prophecies  of  ancient  date,  but  which 
modern  history,  instead  of  falsifying,  is,  through  each  age, 
verifying  with  fresh  increments  of  evidence,  is  the  pledge, 
ancient  as  the  fields  not  yet  dry  from  the  receding  deluge, 
that  Japheth  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem.  The  Eng- 
lish-speaking people  possess  at  this  day  how  broad  a  belt 
of  territory  in  their  regions  and  colonies.  Over  how  large 
a  belt  of  the  seas,  dail}-  widening,  is  their  commerce,  daily 
mending  its  speed,  spreading  its  fleets ;  and,  in  the  sail- 
ors that  man  them,  extending  its  influence  among  all  peo- 
ple. The  great  possession  of  the  people  thus  favored 
is  the  Bible,  that  tells  not  only  of  the  past — of  their 
origin,  but  of  the  future — of  their  terrene  and  their  eter- 
nal destiny.  Of  that  book,  the  Christ  is  the  great  Theme 
and  Radiance. 

When  Japheth  is  become  more  and  more  lord  of  the 
Haves,  in  his  acquaintance  with  the  old  homes  and  litera- 
tures of  Shem,  and  especially  in  his  knowledge  of  this  the 
Christ,  born  of  Hebrew  lineage  on  the  soil  of  Palestine, 
how  singular  has  been  the  experience  that  unexpectedly 
burst  upon  the  scholars  of  a  former  generation,  out  of 
missionary  explorations  in  part,  if  not  in  the  chiefest 
measure.  It  was  the  discovery  that  the  Sanscrit,  the  old 
and  most  perfect  and  refined  language  of  the  world,  was 
the  language  of  Japhethian  conquerors  of  India,  and 
Japhethian  settlers  of  Europe  as  well;  that  though 
Hebrew  was  of  Semitic,  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  and  the 
old  Gothic  were  of  kin  to  the  tongues  of  the  writers  of 


BAPTISTS   AND   MISSIONS.  317 

the  Veda.  When  men  would  have,  some  of  them,  forgot- 
ten it,  others  of  them  perversely  disputing  it,  he  brought 
them  to  see  that  of  one  blood  had  been  the  settlers  of  the 
far  West  and  the  settlers  of  the  far  East. 

When  our  Lord  contemplated  his  sacrifice,  he  said  that, 
lifted  up,  he  would  draw  all  men  unto  him.  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin  characters  were  inscribed  on  his  cross, 
the  language  of  his  own  ancestry,  the  language  of  what 
was  then  the  world's  chief  literature,  and  also  that  of 
what  was  then  the  world's  chief  empire.  The  apostles,  of 
a  Jewish  lineage,  passed  the  torch  of  their  testimony  to 
Gentile  bearers;  but  how  little  probable  did  it  at  first 
seem  that,  amid  the  divergencies  of  the  weary  centuries, 
there  should  be  lying  hidden  the  traces  of  a  common 
origin. 

In  heart  answering  to  heart  as  the  gospel  went  on  its 
way  from  land  to  land  and  from  tribe  to  tribe,  how  did 
each  persecution  and  each  heresy  but  bring  up  additional 
evidences  that  the  nations  of  mankind,  whatever  the  soil 
that  they  trod  and  the  training  that  they  had  received, 
were  marred  by  a  common  sinfulness,  but  possessed  of  a 
similar  conscience,  bowed  by  common  needs  and  suscep- 
tible of  common  hopes,  and  ultimately  capable  of  becom- 
ing, all  barriers  and  partition-walls  thrown  down,  one  in 
Christ.  Their  traditions,  their  tongues,  their  nurser3'^-tales, 
even,  told  around  so  many  fires  in  so  many  dialects, — all 
of  the  original  tongues  and  all  of  the  acquired  dialects 
were  proved  capable  of  moral  agglutination  into  the 
Christian  church,  and  of  delight  in  the  one  redemption, 
and  of  fraternity  entire  and  inse^^arable  in  the  one  Re- 
27* 


318  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

generating  Paraclete.  God  has  not  left  himself  without 
witness  as  to  man's  need  of  him,  and  as  to  his  compas- 
sionate yearnings  toward  the  obdurate  and  desperate 
prodigal,  far  as  his  Avanderings  had  been,  yet  surveyed 
and  cared  for  by  the  Father's  providence,  yet  solicited  in 
the  promises  of  Holy  Writ,  and  yet  sought  out  by  the 
missions  of  Christian  men. 

The  share  of  our  churches  in  their  days  of  compara- 
tively smaller  means,  in  the  translation  and  circulation 
of  the  Scripture,  has  been  early  and  has  been  widespread. 
In  the  Sanscrit,  in  the  Bengalee,  in  the  Burmese,  in  the 
Chinese,  in  the  Cherokee,  in  the  Karen,  in  the  Breton  of 
these  later  generations,  we  have,  as  a  people,  borne  our 
testimony  and  witness.  And  yet  how  much  remains  to 
be  perfected,  and  how  much  to  be  supplemented,  in  the 
growing  largeness  of  the  diffusion  and  in  the  closer  faith- 
fulness of  the  exposition.  Christ,  in  the  single  heart,  is 
the  hope  of  glory.  Christ,  in  his  collected  churches,  is 
the  pledge  of  a  worldwide  evangelization,  and  the  bond 
of  a  worldwide  union. 


XII. 

BAPTISTS  AND  THE  FUTURE 


BAPTISTS  AND  THE  FUTURE. 


Upon  an  old  sun-dial  in  All  Souls'  College,  one  of  the 
houses  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  is  a  significant  sen- 
tence. It  is  a  motto  coming  from  the  heathen  poet  Mar- 
tial :  "  Pereunt  et  Imputantur ;"  or,  in  Englisli,  as  it 
might  he  rendered  yet  more  compactly  than  in  its  Latin 
original,  "  Spent,  but  Charged."  The  framer  of  that  sun- 
dial was  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  Avho  built,  from  the  ashes 
of  the  Great  Fire,  the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's  at  London, 
and  restored  many  others  of  the  city  churches,  gone  down 
in  that  conflagration.  His  thoroughness  of  construction 
in  so  small  a  work  as  this  college  time-teller  for  tlie  gowns- 
men of  All  Souls  has  made  their  dial  exact  and  service- 
able for  nigh  two  centuries.  It  has  mutely  reminded  the 
student  and  the  idler  that  moments  spent,  must  yet  be 
accounted  for.*  The  old  Roman  epigrammatist  and  the 
renowned  British  architect  have  thus  but  renewed  the 
solemn  admonition  that  already  came  pealing  down  from 
yet  earlier  centuries.  The  moments  that  steal  so  quietly 
on  are  very  easily  evanished  from  our  memories,  like  the 
falling  sand  in  the  hour-glass,  and  the  gliding  shadow  on 
the  dial-face ;  but  they  are  registered  in  the  book  of  the 

*  Burrows's  Worthies  of  All  Souh,  Lond.,  1S74,  p.  233. 
V  321 


322  LECTUEES    ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

divine  and  eternal  retributions.  And  as  with  time,  so  with 
property;  as  Avith  Avealth,  so  with  power  and  influence; 
as  with  the  body  and  earth,  so  with  the  soul  and  its  im- 
mortal capabilities.  God  has  put  stewardship  into  the 
entire  texture  of  human  society.  "  We  are  members  one 
of  another;"  not  merely  parts  of  a  great  community, 
political  or  ecclesiastical ;  not  merely  drojis  in  the  grand 
current  of  the  nation  and  the  age ;  but,  as  the  French 
phrase  it,  we  are  sharers  in  the  solidarity  of  a  race. 
Eden  had  glimpses  of  us ;  Eternity  cannot  forget  us.  The 
tippler  who  habitually  guzzles  his  rare  and  uncertain 
earnings  at  the  tavern  bar,  and  also,  when  he  can  find 
there  trust,  drinks  without  present  coin,  has  the  liquid 
fire  soon  gulped  doAvn  the  sodden  throat ;  but  on  the 
books  of  his  landlord,  and  in  the  wan  cheeks  of  his  hun- 
gry babes,  and  in  the  rags  of  his  pining  wife,  what  has 
been  so  soon  "spent"  by  him  is  for  a  long  and  dreary  term 
"charged"  elsewhere.  And  so  the  examples  and  mem- 
ories of  those  who  are  gone  before  us  are  a  part  of  our 
heritage,  to  be  heeded,  and  to  be  used,  and  to  be  recalled 
in  the  accounting.  The  records  of  the  Past  are  the  mon- 
itions of  the  Present,  and  enter  into  the  responsibilities 
of  the  Future.  The  old  pagan  poet  who  wrote  the  motto 
which  Wren  quoted  may  have  seen  and  heard  Paul,  for 
aught  that  we  know.  Both  were  at  Pome  at  the  same 
time,  and  he  may  have  walked  under  the  Arch  of  Titus, 
as  it  was  in  course  of  erection.  The  apostle  John,  his 
contemporary,  if  that  teacher  had  been  consulted,  could 
have  told  the  poet  more  than  he  ever  dreamed  of  the 
reach  and  force  of  Martial's  own  saying.     The  Hebrew 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  323 

Christians  in  Rome,  jostling  Martial  perhaps  on  the  walk, 
as  they  flitted  past  the  memorial  which  the  Roman  con- 
querors reared  of  the  Jewish  nation's  overthrow,  the  ob- 
literation of  their  sanctuary,  and  the  cessation  of  their 
sacrifices,  may  well  have  recalled  the  slighted  warnings 
of  prophet  and  Psalmist,  and  the  unheeded  predictions 
of  the  Master  and  his  apostles,  to  tlieir  own  erring  and 
obdurate  countrymen.  The  opportunity  had  come — had 
gone — ^but  the  solemn  reckoning  for  those  wasted  priv- 
ileges remained ;  and  the  longer  it  was  forgotten,  the 
vaster  and  the  drearier  the  huge  arrears  of  guilt :  "  Spent, 
but  charged," 

Some  Catholic  writers  of  France  have  thought  that  the 
first  idea  of  a  philosophy  of  history  began  with  their 
great  Bossuet  in  his  Universal  History.  Others  of  them 
have,  more  thoughtfully  and  justly,  recognized  the  truth 
that  it  underlay,  centuries  before,  the  work  of  the  re- 
nowned Latin  Father,  St.  Augustine,  and  which  he  called 
The  City  of  God.  Later  European  thinkers  have  dwelt  on 
the  services  of  Vico  and  Herder  and  Hegel  to  the  same 
grand  idea.  An  American  Protestant  might  point  to  our 
own  illustrious  countryman,  the  elder  Jonathan  Edwards, 
in  his  History  of  Redemption,  as  evolving  the  same  con- 
trolling thought  of  a  continued  purpose  and  a  regular 
development  in  the  affairs  of  the  nations,  alike  those  of 
the  evangelized  and  the  unevangelized.  But,  in  truth,  the 
great  central  principle  was  in  x\postle  and  in  Psalmist  ages 
before  Augustine  was  converted  from  his  Manicheism. 
When  the  inspired  David  represented  the  Son,  yet  to  be 

incarnate,  who,  as  Lord,  was   to   receive   universal   and 
25  » 


324  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

divine  liomage,  and  all  kingdoms  and  all  people  were 
warned  that  it  was  at  their  peril  to  withhold  the  loyal 
confession, — even  then  that  second  Psalm,  brief  as  it  was, 
gathered  up  the  webs  of  the  centuries,  all  dynasties,  all 
revolutions,  all  discoveries,  into  one  compact  knot  of  the 
inevitable  and  divine  purposes,  and  the  irrefragable  and 
divine  oracles.  And  when  Paul,  in  his  Epistles,  spoke 
of  the  Redeemer  as  the  Second  Adam,  and  led  back  the 
thoughts  of  his  reader  to  the  first  Adam,  head  of  a  com- 
mon Fall,  and  thence  onward  to  the  Manifest  God,  as  the 
Lord  and  Pledge  of  a  common  Redemption  in  his  cha- 
racter as  the  Second  Adam,  the  lines  were  surveyed  for 
a  philosophy  of  human  history — a  philosophy  true,  full, 
and  divine.  A  course  of  rule  that  began  in  Eden  hurries 
not,  pauses  not,  till  it  rests  in  the  Judgment  Day,  as  the 
Second  Adam  shall  then  administer  the  eternal  sanctions, 
alike  of  his  law  and  of  his  gospel.  Paradise,  Sinai,  Cal- 
vary, dot  the  centuries  as  great  points :  and  they  bind  the 
whole  household  of  man  to  the  expectation  of  the  audit, 
as  it  shall  come  from  the  White  Throne  and  the  Opened 
Books.     We  "  spend,"  but  He  "  charges." 

Man  passes.  Opportunity  passes.  The  age  passes. 
But  the  right  and  duty  and  the  reckoning  do  not  pass, 
and  cannot  pass,  because  the  word  and  the  God  may 
not  pass  away — not  one  jot  of  the  word,  not  one  attribute 
of  the  God,  Perfect  and  Immutable  and  Immaculate. 

We,  as  a  denomination  of  Christians,  have,  in  tlie 
advantages  of  the  time  and  land  where  our  lot  is  cast,  and 
in  the  memory  and  inspiriting  examples  of  the  fathers 
who  have  preceded  us,  our  new  hopes  suggested  by  each 


BAPTISTS   AND  THE   FUTURE.  325 

added  week  of  life  to  the  toiler,  and  by  each  new  avenue 
for  benevolence  and  usefulness  and  piety  opening  before 
the  furrow  of  the  sower  and  the  sickle  of  the  reaper. 
Gone  arc  tlic  fathers,  but  not  their  remembrance,  or  their 
influence,  or  our  own  indebtedness  to  God  for  what  the 
toils  of  these  fathers  earned,  the  tears  of  these  fathers 
bathed,  and  the  blood  of  these  martyrs  enriched,  and  the 
faithful  cry  of  these  witnesses  commended.  We  have  en- 
tered into  the  ample  and  consecrated  heritage;  and  the 
Lord  is  surveying,  with  a  divine  tenderness  and  gentle- 
ness, each  new  enlistment  of  laborers  on  his  acres  and  in 
his'  vineyard ;  over  which,  through  its  every  inch,  hovers 
the  cloud  of  the  prayers  which  these  honored  predecessors 
sent  up ;  and  under  its  every  clod  lies  the  seed,  and  froiu 
its  every  trunk  grow  the  scions,  which  they  so  faithfully 
and  patiently  planted. 

It  was  said  to  have  been  an  utterance,  to  an  American 
Baptist,  of  the  late  Frederick  W.  Krummacher, — the  royal 
chaplain  at  Potsdam,  but  more  commonly  known  among 
the  Christians  not  only  of  his  own  native  country,  Ger- 
many, but  of  Britain  and  America  also,  as  the  author  of 
Elijah  and  Elisha, — that  in  his  judgment  the  Baptists  had 
"  a  future." 

God  has  not  taught  his  people  to  pronounce  too  con- 
fidentl}^  on  the  results  of  coming  generations  and  their 
changes  as  to  families  and  communities,  political  or  ec- 
clesiastical. Yet  there  is  great  cause  of  gratitude  in  the 
remembrance  of  fathers  who  have  done  worthily ;  and  of 
hope,  long  as  our  confidence  is  not  in  them  or  their 
graves,  but  in  the  God  who  guided  them,  and  upon  whom 

28 


326  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST  HISTORY. 

they  lo3^ally  leaned,  in  dark  days  and  through  hard 
conflicts. 

In  the  literature  of  the  English  tongue  it  is  cause  of 
profound  thanksgiving  that  God  gave  to  our  fathers  men 
like  Bunyan  in  an  earlier  day,  and  Keach  in  an  inferior 
grade ;  and  in  a  later  day,  the  learning  and  hiblical  and 
rabbinical  lore  of  Gill ;  the  clear  and  massive  theology  of 
Andrew  Fuller;  John  Foster  among  the  greatest  essayists 
of  the  tongue  in  the  solidity  of  his  material,  though  over- 
laid b}''  the  heaviness  of  his  style ;  and  among  our  Scottish 
brethren,  Robert  Haldane  and  Archibald  McLean ;  in 
Ireland,  Alexander  Carson,  the  warm-hearted  and  keen- 
eyed,  with  a  Damascus  blade  that  he  was  not  slow  to 
draw.  In  the  Welsh  pulpit,  the  name  of  Christmas 
Evans  became  known,  not  only  to  the  principality  and 
the  men  using  its  old  Celtic  tongue,  but  to  all  English- 
speaking  Christians  as  well,  both  by  the  eulogy  of  Hall  on 
his  power,  and  by  the  specimen  of  his  illustrations,  as  to 
Christ's  sacrifice,  so  widely  circulated  on  either  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Suspected,  as  we  sometimes  have  been,  of  overlooking 
the  religious  privileges  of  the  household  and  the  force  of 
the  hereditary  principle  in  the  transmission  of  religion, 
yet,  to  a  Baptist  of  Scotland,  Christian  Britain  owes  one 
of  its  very  best  works  on  this  theme.  It  is  ChristoiDher 
Anderson,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Domestic  Constitution,  the 
same  scholar  who  wrote  laboriously  and  usefully  on 
the  English  versions  of  the  Bible.  We  had  a  Benjamin 
Davis,  a  scholar  of  the  old  mould,  a  man  of  large  frame, 
but  with  the  simplicity  and  tenderness  of  a  little  child, 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  327 

full  of  Oriental  lore,  and  one  of  our  revisers  in  the  Bible 
Commission  now  in  session.  In  our  own  country  we 
have  had  Baldwin,  but,  above  all,  Wayland,  a  prince 
among  us  as  a  thinker  on  moral  science,  and  as  a  most 
eloquent  writer  on  the  missionary  enterprise  Avhen  it  was 
more  generally  than  now  held  visionary  and  Utopian. 
As  a  reasoner,  and  as  a  biographer,  favored  with  Judson 
as  his  subject,  his  works  must  live  and  win  a  widening 
circle  of  students.  In  the  Avalks  of  public  life,  we  have 
had  in  this  land  a  Nathaniel  Macon,  whom  John  Ran- 
dolph and  John  Jay  pronounced,  though  of  oi^posite  po- 
litical parties,  among  the  very  wisest  of  the  men  they  had 
known,  and  whom  Randolph  in  his  last  days  called  the 
best  and  purest  man  he  had  ever  met.  We  have  had  a 
Tallmadge  and  a  Marcy,  an  Ira  Harris  and  a  Richard 
Fletcher,  among  our  jurists  and  judges.  In  the  pulpit 
were  our  chief  activities;  and  there  the  Mercers  and 
the  Semples  and  Broaduses,  William  Staughton,  Daniel 
Sharp,  Baron  Stow,  Spencer  H.  Cone,  Archibald  Maclay, 
Duncan  Dunbar,  Bartholomew  T.  Welch  and  Richard 
Fuller,  not  long  gone  home,  and  John  S.  Maginnis — a 
loss  to  theology  by  his  early  death — were  preachers  and 
pastors  of  much  usefulness.  We  have  had  in  the  Old 
World  some  eminent  converts  to  our  views,  like  Baptist 
W.  Noel,  of  noble  family,  a  chaplain  to  the  queen,  the 
brother  of  an  earl,  once,  it  is  said,  proffered  an  Indian 
mitre,  which  since  that  day,  in  the  see  proffered  to  him, 
has  become  that  of  an  archbishop.  But  from  all  these 
advantages  conscience  brought  him  to  cast  in  his  lot  with 
a  people  illustrated,  indeed,  with  the  pre-eminent  genius 


328  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    IIISTOrvY. 

of  a  Robert  Hall,  but  among  whom  his  social  privileges, 
according  to  the  world's  usual  standard,  were  greatly 
abridged.  One  of  the  most  startling  exhibitions  of  big- 
otry that  we  remember  in  our  day  was  the  bitter  scorn 
w'ith  which  our  English  Congregational  brethren  turned 
upon  Noel  at  this  change,  as  if  grieved  that,  in  quitting 
the  Establishment,  he  did  not  pause  to  cast  in  his  lot  with 
this  portion  of  the  Nonconformist  body. 

In  the  development  of  literature  through  the  religious 
press,  which  in  our  country  has  taken  on  the  most  won- 
drous jiroportions,  our  own  churches  have  cause  for  large 
exultation  before  God.  As  Chalmers  remarked  in  his 
time,  tlie  journals  of  these  later  days  contain  often  ed- 
itorials that  would,  a  little  time  since,  have  been  highly 
praised  if  found  forming  pages  in  elaborate  volumes. 
Yet  the  periodical,  prompt  and  recurrent,  cannot  fitly  or 
exhaustively  discuss  some  topics  that  must,  to  be  justly 
handled,  require  larger  space  and  longer  preparation  than 
the  editor  or  his  allied  contributors  can  command.  The 
newspaper  must  and  does  aid  the  library.  But  the 
library  must  still  do  its  share,  and  in  yet  larger  degrees 
than  heretofore,  to  meet  the  calls  of  Providence  and  the 
needs  of  the  age. 

In  provision  for  education,  both  secular  and  theological, 
there  has  been  an  outlay  of  generous  contribution  and 
pious  sacrifice,  and  patriarchal  devotedness  and  assiduity, 
that  may  well  excite  admiration.  Nathaniel  Kendrick 
and  Hascall  and  Sherwood  and  John  M.  Peck  and  others 
have  graven  their  names  deeply  on  the  hearts  of  the 
churches,  and  in  the  puli)it  their  effective  foresight  and 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  329 

generosity  must  have,  in  continuous  supi)lies  of  new 
evangelists  and  pastors,  strong  power. 

On  missions,  our  churches  bestowed  the  beginning  of 
their  strength ;  and  on  the  Bible,  so  numerously  translated 
and  so  widely  scattered,  their  zeal  has  sent  out  its  record. 
Their  work  may  be  revised,  but  the  days  of  the  first 
planners  will  come  into  remembrance  anew  hereafter  in 
Eastern  fields ;  as  now,  in  English  literature,  the  toils  of 
recent  investigators  bring  out  the  services  of  WyclifFe  and 
Tyndal,  though  the  foundations  of  these  earlier  workers 
are  overlaid  in  the  minds  of  ordinary  readers  by  the 
structures  of  more  recent  laborers.  In  the  West  Indian 
missions  of  our  English  Baptist  brethren,  when  the  plant- 
ers of  .Jamaica  tore  down  and  burnt  the  places  of  worship, 
and  Knibb's  life  was  threatened,  the  dauntless  and  res- 
olute man  returned  to  England  to  make  a  protest,  that 
did  its  large  share  in  extorting,  or  at  least  expediting,  the 
resolve  of  the  imperial  government  to  end  slavery  and  to 
pay  the  millions  of  the  national  treasury  to  compensate 
the  slaveholder. 

The  cause  of  freedom  and  of  democracy  is  on  the  ad- 
vance among  the  nations ;  and  far  as  it  spreads  it  needs 
an  open  Bible,  and  a  true  free  church,  and  the  free  Spirit 
from  God's  large  bounty,  to  make  national  freedom  either 
practicable,  genuine,  or  enduring.  Our  duties  here  grow 
with  our  opportunities.  We  have  at  this  day  our  mis- 
sions, English  and  American,  in  the  very  city  of  Rome, 
and  under  the  shadow  of  the  Vatican.  Can  this  last? 
Not  if  the  doctrine  of  the  Syllabus  be  practically  en- 
forced ;   and  pontifical  infallibility  is   pledged,  if  it  can 

28* 


330  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

grasp  tliG  power,  to  make  the  Syllabus  the  law  of  Chris- 
tendom. With  each  onward  plunge  of  the  jjeople,  it  does 
not  follow  that  true  or  permanent  deliverance  can  come. 
It  must  begin  in  an  enlightened  conscience,  and  an  in- 
formed judgment,  and  a  will  regenerate  and  war])cd  heav- 
enward. The  truth  makes  free.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is  the  great  guardian  of  real  enfranchisement.  We  suji- 
pose  a  free  church,  with  its  open  paths  and  its  open  Bibles, 
is  the  Master's  own  safeguard.  In  auguries  of  progress, 
apart  from  his  benediction,  we  have  scant  trust. 

How  full  of  hope  is  it  that  the  tongue  of  our  British 
kinsmen  and  our  own  is  so  rapidly  becoming  the  predom- 
inant language  of  commerce  and  travel  and  general  lit- 
erary intercourse.  But  a  half  century  since,  the  French 
seemed  likely  to  be  the  tongue  of  refinement  and  diplo- 
macy all  the  world  over;  Germany  next  appealed  to  its 
literature  and  erudition,  and  hoped  to  claim  the  scep- 
tre. But  both,  we  believe,  now  admit  that  the  present 
aspect  is  that  of  the  yet-widening  currency  of  the  English 
tongue  wherever  commerce,  adventure,  or  education  jour- 
ney round  the  globe.  The  Baptists  of  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica speak  now  to  a  mass  of  Englishmen  many  times  more 
diffused  and  more  influential  than  the  nations  and  cities 
addressed  by  the  writers  and  speakers  of  the  tongue  in 
the  days  of  the  American  Revolution. 

The  poor  are  coming  afresh  into  the  purview  of  the 
statesman  and  of  the  man  of  kindly  instincts.  It  is  to 
the  credit  of  the  British  Ritualists,  much  as  we  deprecate 
their  ai:>proaches  to  Rome,  that  they  are  endeavoring  to 
win  and  attach  the  poor,  whom  Methodism  and  Dissent 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  331 

have  comparatively  allowed  to  ftill  out  of  their  sphere  of 
activity  and  testimony.  But  the  system  of  the  great 
Romish  Church  has,  in  its  own  uncurhcd  action,  and  over 
the  fields  it  exclusively  controls,  heen  the  fosterer  of  the 
ignorance,  the  listlessness,  and  the  ferocity  that  make 
pauijcrism  most  terrible  to  the  affluent,  and  most  wretch- 
ed for  the  poor  themselves. 

The  gospel  must  go,  with  the  charity  of  its  Divine 
Author,  not  only  to  the  operatives  to  whom  in  early 
time  the  Methodists  and  the  Nonconformists  bore  it,  but 
to  a  lower  stratum  of  society — the  homeless  and  the 
schoolless  and  the  listless,  who  hover  between  mendicity 
and  crime.  A  blessed  work  opens  here ;  but  it  is  a  vast 
burden,  and  requires  a  heroic  faith  to  grasp  it. 

And  yet  it  is  in  such  an  age,  when  the  moral  side  of 
man's  "nature  affords  the  only  leverage  for  the  uplifting  of 
the  forlorn  and  hopeless  from  their  physical  degradation, 
that  Materialism  appears  most  arrogantly  on  the  fields  of 
mental  and  physical  science.  Make  it  the  current  faith 
of  a  community ;  and  if  the  past  history  of  the  races  is 
to  be  trusted,  freedom,  knowledge,  order,  and  prosperity 
go  down  into  the  general  ruin.  A  godliness  that  has  the 
promise  of  the  life  beyond  is,  in  fact,  the  grand  recuper- 
ating energy  of  the  life  that  now  is. 

The  Bible  tells,  with  a  rude  energy  taught  from  the 
skies,  its  apostles,  and  its  prophets,  of  the  rust  of  gold.  It 
literally  rusts  not.  But  morally  the  rust  is  a  fearful  peril 
and  a  tremendous  poison.  Made  the  god  of  the  states- 
man, and  where  are  the  patriots  who  may  stand  up,  Avhen 
gold  has  bought  purchasable  votes,  and  fraudulent  elcc- 


332  LECTUEES   ON   BAPTIST   PIISTOEY. 

tions,  and  venal  judges,  and  legislatures  that  frame  absurd 
and  corrupt  laws  for  those  who  can  reward  the  perjured 
law-makers  the  most  liberally  and  promptly?  Old  Rome, 
in  her  pagan  insensibility,  perished  under  such  rusting ; 
and  the  nineteenth-century  civilization  cannot  endure,  as 
well  as  did  Paganism,  the  terrible  corrosion  of  gold,  thus 
made  to  represent  duty  and  happiness  and  right.  If  the 
gospel  go  out,  and  Materialism  take  its  place,  the  terrible 
picture  of  the  Apocalypse  as  to  Babylon,  ripe  for  her  over- 
throw, would  become  a  sure  and  wide  reality.  Some 
have  doubted  the  wisdom  and  equity  of  studying  these 
prophetic  pages  with  any  idea  that  Antichrist  is  to  be 
identified  with  religious  bodies  now  laboring.  We  answer, 
that  Stuart  is  worthy  of  honor  for  his  services  in  the 
cause  of  biblical  study  and  the  many  most  excellent 
students  whom  he  trained.  But  his  readiness  to  accept 
Grotius  and  the  Catholic  Hug  and  the  Rationalist  Eich- 
horn  as  expositors  of  Revelation  was,  we  judge,  a  griev- 
ous unhappiness.  Barnes,  though  belonging  to  a  school 
of  Presbyterianism  b}^  which  Stuart  was  held  as  its  chief 
exegete,  deserted,  as  he  commented  on  the  New  Testament, 
when  he  reached  Revelations,  the  guidance  of  Stuart  to 
accept  that  of  Elliott.  So  the  American  editor  of  that 
portion  of  Lange's  great  Bible  commentary  Avhich  dis- 
cusses the  Apocalypse  has  gone  over  from  Stuart  to  Elli- 
ott, evangelical,  erudite,  and,  as  we  think,  far  more  trust- 
worthy than  Grotius,  who  wrote  in  Roman  Catholic  France, 
amid  the  blandishments  of  Roman  Catholic  scholars.  They 
proclaimed  at  his  death,  that  he  was  on  the  verge  of  join- 
ing their  communion;  and  a  Jesuit  scholar  of  Holland  has 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  333 

lately  and  learnedly  argued  for  the  truth  of  this  statement. 
Whether  this  were  so  or  not,  Grotius,  writing  in  the  French 
Court,  fixed  there  as  Swedish  ambassador,  amid  Catholic 
surroundings,  was  scarce  a  candid  and  competent  witness 
on  the  true  nature  of  the  New  Testament  Antichrist. 

Is  the  great  Latin  Church  the  only  antagonist?  Is  not 
the  Greek  communion  in  its  present  form  greatly  erring  ? 
Many,  even  of  missionar}'  laborers  on  Eastern  fields,  judge 
the  prospects  of  Protestant  laborers  Avoukl  be  sorely 
changed  for  the  worse  on  Turkish  soil  should  the 
Mohammedan  giv'e  place  to  the  Russian ;  and  students 
of  prophecy  have  for  generations  looked  to  the  Hebrew 
prophecies  of  Gog  and  Magog  as  betokening  a  terrible 
peril  to  the  cause  of  truth  on  this  side. 

Wliat  is  our  hope  in  the  collision  between  the  false 
forms  of  religion  and  the  true  ?  Not  in  civilization ;  not 
in  political  progress;  not  in  the  growth  of  art  or  the 
activity  of  a  press  redoubling  and  cheapening  its  issues, 
like  locust-clouds  in  their  wide  diffusion.  All  may  be  use- 
ful ;  but  all  these,  too,  may  be  baneful,  except  as  they  are 
guided  and  upheld  by  the  gospel  of  the  Nazarene.  The 
Hope  of  the  world  came  out  of  the  stable  and  the'manger, 
out  of  the  carpenter-shop  at  Nazareth  and  the  tomb  bor- 
rowed from  him  of  Arimathea.  All  the  ages  have  their 
one  sure  anchorage  in  that  Messiah. 

If  the  church  fight  the  battles  of  her  Head,  she  must 
be  content  to  let  him  cipher  out  her  resources  and  dic- 
tate her  policy  and  campaigns.  "Not  by  miglit  nor  by 
power,  but  by  my  Spirit,"  saitli  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

She  may  not  barter  away  Truth  for  the  sake  of  a  peace 


334  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

fallacious  and  transitory  in  its  date  and  pernicious  in  its 
results.  Of  old,  the  nominal  church  made,  in  tlie  shape 
of  Gnosticism  and  of  Alexandrian  Eclecticism,  a  hollow 
peace  with  Greek  philosophy.  She  was  overreached  in 
the  negotiation,  and  sold  herself  to  bondage  and  error. 
The  same  nominal  church  made  peace  with  the  Mani- 
chcism  of  the  East  in  some  of  the  old  heresies,  and  what 
was  the  result  hut  shame  and  crime  and  moral  death  ? 

It  is  so  yet.  The  truth  of  God,  biblical,  God-given,  and 
God-guarded,  knows  no  surrender  and  accepts  no  leagues. 
His  word  is  not  to  be  lowered  to  man's  arbitrary  will  and 
self-confident  philosophy. 

As  Jansenism  became  scriptural,  it  became  persecuted 
and  proscribed  in  France.  But  as  it  went  under  the  ban, 
it  remained,  nevertheless,  a  power.  Some  of  the  noblest 
results  in  the  French  literature — some  of  the  noblest 
names  in  French  legislation  and  jurisprudence — trace 
their  pedigree  to  the  biblical  element,  the  developed  con- 
science, and  the  regulated  affections  which  they  learned 
of  the  men  and  women  of  Port  Royal. 

So  will  it  be  for  other  tongues  and  literatures  and  lands 
as  well.  ■  God's  book  in  its  place  of  supremacy  open  to 
every  reader — the  schoolbook  and  the  household  oracle, 
the  Scriptures  of  God — is  yet  to  be  the  law  of  all  the 
nations.  He  who  was  transfigured  had  Moses  and  Elijah 
for  attendants  there.  They  spoke  of  a  Law  Revealed ;  and 
that  old  Law,  once  dishonored,  again  Restored.  The  man 
of  Sinai,  the  first  Receiver;  the  man  of  Carmel,  the  sec- 
ond Procl aimer— the  two  Avere  golden  taches  annexing 
the  Christ  to  the  Law,  and  aflixing  the  New  to  the  Old 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  335 

Testament.  If  Christianity,  like  her  Divine  Author  and 
Head,  is  to  be  transfigured,  and  attract  the  admiration 
and  trust  of  the  peopled  eartli,  it  must  be  a  Christianity 
thoroughly  scriptural  and  thoroughly  spiritual.  For  this 
■what  arc  the  resources?  They  are,  on  the  earth,  in  the 
asking  church;  they  are,  in  the  heavens,  in  the  answer 
of  the  Father  and  the  Advocate  and  the  Comforter  to  the 
church  thus  upward  in  her  gaze,  and  consistent,  contrite, 
and  patient  in  her  asking.     In  this  sign,  Zion  conquers. 

But  the  grand  encouragement  to  effort,  patient  and  un- 
relenting; to  a  hope  which,  like  Abraham's,  hopes  against 
hope,  and  refuses  to  see  difficulties,  however  tall  and  dire, 
when  over  them  divine  grace  and  the  Messiah's  destiny 
summon  us, — the  permanent  ground  of  confidence  for  the 
Church  of  the  Most  High  is  where  Christ,  the  great  Head, 
placed  it ;  and  Avhere  apostles,  after  their  Lord's  ascent  to 
heaven,  found  it ;  and  where  prophets,  before  that  Lord's 
advent,  had  fixed  it.  As  Malachi  embodies  it,  in  the  clos- 
ing leaf  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  with  him,  with  the 
God  who  planned  the  campaign  and  dictated  the  instruc- 
tions. Yet  had  he  "  the  residue  of  the  Spirit."  *  The 
last  prophet  of  the  Earlier  Dispensation  is  speaking  of  the 
first  formation  of  our  race.  God  laid  the  foundation  of 
human  society,  not  in  polygamy,  but  in  monogamy;  the 
same  plenitude  of  creative  energy  that  stored  the  constel- 
lations on  high,  and  the  round  planet  of  our  earth  with 
all  the  varieties  of  power,  splendor,  and  faculty  in  the 
animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral  world,  might  have  sur- 
rounded Adam  with  a  train  like  the  harem  of  Solomon. 
*  Mai.  ii.  15. 


336  LECTURES  ON   BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

Seeking  a  goodly  seed,  the  Framer  of  the  race  built  mar- 
riage, honored,  equal,  and  holy,  into  the  corner-stone  of 
human  society,  from  no  lack  of  power  on  his  part,  but 
because  "  he  sought  a  holy  seed."  So.  in  revelation,  the 
infinite  fulness  of  that  Informing  Spirit,  who  furnished 
the  existing  oracles  of  Scripture,  might  have  made  the 
volumes  of  our  Bible  numerous  as  the  tomes  that  crowd 
the  shelves  of  the  Boodhist.  Their  sacred  books  are 
many  times  in  size  the  volumes  of  our  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  God  might  have  sent  a  new  apostle  every 
week  in  each  of  the  twelve  months  of  the  year,  and  dic- 
tated a  fresh  Apocalypse  for  every  library  haunted  by  the 
meditative  plodder,  and  for  every  tlieological  school  visited 
by  the  eager  student.  He  had,  unexpended  and  exhaust- 
less,  "  the  residue  of  the  Spirit."  With  all  this  unused 
wealth  behind  him,  he  made  the  tome  he  would  have 
man  consult  to  be  portable.  Though,  through  centuries 
and  across  continents,  its  various  materials  were  slowly 
carried  together,  they  were  found  symmetric  and  consist- 
ent. The  divine  indenture  tallied  through  the  various 
ages  of  patriarch,  prophet,  and  evangelist,  in  the  unity 
of  its  temper  and  genius,  and  in  the  divine  oneness  of  its 
lessons ;  yet,  out  of  all  these  several  and  independent 
authorships,  came  a  volume  which  a  few  pennies  could 
buy,  and  which  a  week's  study  could  read  through  from 
cover  to  cover.  No  lack  of  material  was  there  in  his  om- 
niscient and  infinite  wisdom  ;  but  lack  of  capacity  in  the 
scholar's  mind  and  in  the  toiler's  leisure  rendered  merci- 
fully the  book  so  compendious,  yet  incomparably  compre- 
hensive.    It  took  hold  of  the  child  and  the  sage :  the  bar- 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  337 

Larian  fresh  from  liis  cannibal-feast,  and  the  philosopher 
gray  and  wrinkled  from  perusal  of  the  Old  World  philos- 
ophies, found  alike,  in  the  one  tome,  what  revealed  their 
wound,  and  met  their  need,  and  unveiled  their  God.  And, 
in  the  resurrection  of  that  God,  the  Incarnate,  sympathiz- 
ing, suflering,  atoning,  and  subduing — the  Forerunner, 
Advocate,  and  Welcomer  of  all  his  flock — he  stood,  the 
ever-present  Lord  of  the  common  household,  and  spread 
before  the  soul  of  each  reader  truths  that  might  gladden 
and  astonisli  and  satisfy  the  intellect  of  an  Edwards  or  a 
Pascal.  A  Bunyan,  grimy  from  his  tinkering,  or  when 
spent  after  filling  up  the  stint  of  laces  that  was  to  win  the 
wife's  and  children's  bread,  could  catch,  as  the  light  came 
through  prison-bars  on  the  worn  page,  glimpses,  bright 
and  clear,  of  the  Delectable  Mountains  and  of  the  Heav- 
enly City,  as  he  prayed,  Avept,  and  pondered.  And  as  the 
Holy  Ghost,  Creator,  Enliglitener,  Restorer,  Renewcr,  and 
Sanctifier,  observed  thus  certain  just  rules,  and  made  cer- 
tain fit  reserves,  in  his  work  for  the  first  family,  and  again 
in  his  work  on  the  divine  Scriptures  for  the  universal 
household  of  the  faith, — so  that  same  Divine  Agent 
has  his  own  reserves  for  the  hour  of  his  down-rush. 
and  for  the  season  of  the  uprising  and  forthbreaking  of 
his  earthly  Zion.  Pentecost  did  not  exhaust  his  full 
effluences.     The  promises  never  grow  stale. 

When  an  impenitent  and  obdurate  Judaism  went  down 
in  the  terrible  siege  of  Titus;  when  an  imperial  and 
world-grasping  Paganism  of  the  proud  Roman  domination 
was  stormed  and  was  sapped  and  was  exploded  b}^  the 

faith  of  tlie  early  Christian  confessors,  martyrs,  and  itiner- 
29  W 


338  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ant  missionaries,  the  grace,  thus  bestowed  of  Heaven,  and 
thus  witnessed  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  left,  in  the  Heav- 
enly Paraclete,  a  store  of  all  wisdom  and  all  power  and 
all  goodness  yet  to  be  drawn  upon  by  the  generations  to 
come  after. 

And  so,  in  modern  missions,  when  the  wise  of  the 
world,  and  the  worldly-wise  in  the  nominal  church,  invited 
mankind  to  hoot  at  the  absurdity,  temerity,  and  ruinous 
revolutionary  madness  of  going  with  a  Bible  and  a  Christ 
to  men  who  had  inherited  a  Paganism  that  was  already 
old  in  the  days  of  Daniel,  or  to  other  heathen,  men  who 
were  wife-sla3^ers,  child-murderers,  and  devourers  of  human 
flesh ;  when  the  universities  that  called  themselves  Chris- 
tian, and  the  governments  that  called  their  bills  and  laws 
by  the  years  of  the  advent,  and  took  oath  in  their  law- 
courts  on  the  record  of  pristine  missionary  activity  and  mis- 
sionary triumph  ;  when  the  Christian  synods  that  deemed 
themselves  inheritors  of  the  work  of  the  Reformers  pro- 
nounced gravely  and  indignantly,  that  civilization  must 
go  in  advance  of  evangelization,  and  that  steam  and  gun- 
powder should  shoot  ahead  of  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
God  to  make  his  work  feasible, — he  Avho  is  Avont  "  by 
the  things  that  are  not,  to  bring  to  naught  the  things  that 
are,"  waited  not  for  reviewers  and  East  India  Companies 
and  Assemblies  to  settle,  in  their  wise  foshion,  Avhat  Avere 
Jehovah's  prerogatives,  and  what  might  be  in  reason 
allowed  him  for  their  legitimate  path  of  display.  He 
came  down.  Out  of  the  numerous  and  merry  nursery- 
flock  of  a  country  pastor,  he  called  the  Wesleys;  out  of  the 
tap-room  of  an  inn  kept  by  a  widowed  mother,  he  sum- 


BAPTISTS   AXD  THE   FUTURE.  339 

moncd  a  Wlnteficld ;  out  of  the  cradle  of  a  parish-clerk, 
who  was  withal  parish-schoolmaster,  poor  in  store  and 
narrow  in  hopes,  he  took  a  child ;  out  of  the  cobbler's 
stall  where  that  child  learned  an  irksome  trade,  and 
learned  it  but  imperfectly,  he,  the  Able  and  the  Unerring, 
brought  a  Carey.  He  sent  the  laborers,  endued  with  grace 
and  zeal  and  culture  of  his  supplying,  over  the  wide  field ; 
and  the  destitutions  of  home  Paganism  in  Britain,  and  the 
vaster  desolations  of  Indian  Paganism  in  the  ancient  East, 
were  met.  Yes ;  incredible  and  preposterous  as  such  prov- 
idences seemed  to  the  wise  men,  he  left  the  gainsayers  to 
piece  together,  as  they  best  might,  the  fragments  of  their 
own  exploded  vaticinations;  and  to  gather  and  hide,  as 
they  could,  the  blunted  barbs  of  what  they  had  deemed 
their  irresistible  wit.  For  the  gospel,  in  spite  of  them, 
blazed  out  of  the  collier's  mine,  and  out  of  the  cotta- 
ger's hut,  and  out  of  the  homes  which  recent  suttees  had 
robbed  of  a  mother.  Civilization  to  precede  Christianity  ? 
He  who  waits  not  for  man  proved,  with  a  gracious  and 
emphatic  effusion  of  his  Spirit,  that  when  capitalists  said: 
"  Why,  they  have  no  funds ;"  and  when  scholars  said : 
"Why,  they  have  no  learning;"  and  when  rulers  and 
parliamentary  orators  exclaimed:  "Why  they  have  no 
prudence;  and  if  suffered,  the  empire  has  no  security. 
Banish  them,  deport  them,  bridle  them;"  when  clerical 
satirists  exclaimed,  giggling  at  the  idea  of  being  wiser 
than  these  egregious  fanatics:  "Choke  them  off,  as  you 
would  the  weasel  found  in  your  hen-roost," — he,  the  Un- 
waiting,  proved  that  he  was  in  no  mood  to  brook  these 
interruptions.     India,  roused  from  the  slumbers  of  weary 


340  LECTURES  ON  BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

ages,  heard,  inquiringly  and  tolerantly,  and  at  last  grate- 
fully, the  men,  poor  but  devout,  who  had  heard,  over  the 
turmoil  and  prattle  of  colleges  and  parliament-houses 
and  cabinet-halls  and  review-parlors,  the  still  small  voice 
which  said :  "  Yet  had  he  the  residue  of  the  tSl^irit." 

Ay !  The  Jehovah  who  had  commissioned  the  first 
writers  was  but  awaiting  the  contrite  and  trustful  and 
grateful  readers.  He  "had  that  residue,"  and  he  meant 
to  use  it,  let  governors-general  do  their  mightiest — let 
grave  assemblies  resolve  to  their  oAvn  most  sage  self-con- 
tent against  its  admissibility — let  keen  witlings  sharpen 
their  nibs  and  write  down  their  most  pungent  gibes  and 
their  most  oracular  of  predictions.  The  Father— had  he 
not  covenanted  with  the  Son  that  the  heathen  should  be  the 
Christ's  inheritance?  The  Son — had  he  not,  after  clutch- 
ing the  dragon  and  bearing  Sin  and  rending  Death  as  he 
mounted  victoriously  to  his  reascended  and  native  skies, 
said  to  his  flock — a  few  poor  and  sad  men,  earth-hunted 
and  hell-hounded  men  as  they  were — "  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always  to  the  end  of  the  world"?  So  wait  for  the  Spirit 
from  the  Father.  And  when  the  Paraclete,  promised  by 
Father  and  Son,  comes  down,  where  are  the  literatures — 
where  the  statesmanlike  polities,  however  subtle  and  for- 
sighted — where  the  ancient  and  inveterate  idolatries — 
where  the  philosophies,  Gnostic,  Eclectic,  or  Rational- 
istic, of  whatever  race,  of  whatever  age, — that  shall  wrench 
away  the  urn  which  he  is  emptying  out,  and  that  shall 
beat  back  the  descending  torrents  of  the  Spirit  as  he 
sends  them  on  their  mission  of  evangelization  and  en- 
franchisement?    He   gave  the  command,  and   great  was 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  341 

soon  the  company  of  those  publishing  the  glad  news. 
The  world  cried  "  "Wait ;"  but  when  the  Christ  had  said 
"Go,"  there  were  those — blessed  be  his  name  for  the 
promjiting  and  the  heartening  of  them — who  thought  it 
better  to  hearken  to  God  than  to  man — better  to  face  the 
vast  odds  and  to  do  the  Christ-commanded  task,  in  the 
Christ-covenanted  strength.  And  now  we  challenge  the 
world  to  pause  from  its  rash  prcsagings — prcsagings  as 
fully  and  as  shamefully  falsified  by  to-day's  history  as 
have  been  the  last  year's  prognostications  told  by  some 
gypsies  for  stolen  money  to  some  credulous  pilferer  and 
blunderer,  whom  they  cheated  alike  of  funds  and  of 
hopes.  We  challenge  the  world  to  pause  from  its  ill- 
omened  threats  of  defeat  for  the  Bible,  and  to  answer 
honestly :  Would  they  call  back  again  the  widows'  burn- 
ing piles  which  missionary  zeal  has  quenched?  Would 
they  fling  into  the  Ganges  the  babes  whom  missionary 
compassion  and  tenderness  have  persuaded  the  mother  to 
spare  ?  Would  they  call  in  the  Bibles  which  these  teach- 
ers have  translated,  and  these  converts  have  studied  to 
their  own  spiritual  renewal?  Would  they  for  the  evan- 
gelized restore  the  paganized?  No;  from  too  many  a 
shore  and  a  tribe,  insular  and  continental,  comes  back 
the  testimony.  It  is  God's  work,  and  wondrous  in  our 
eyes.  If  his  hand  be  in  it,  Gamaliel's  counsel  may  be 
the  most  prudent;  for  who  can  fight  against  God? 

And  it  is  the  recurrent  testimony  of  ages,  widely  parted 
in  the  history  of  the  nations  and  the  churches,  that  when 
there  has  been  strong  prayer  and  simple  faith,  the  secular 
aspect  of  the  nations  has  been  most  strangely  and  sud- 

29  » 


342  LECTURES   OX   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

denly  altered.  It  is  the  intimation  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  of  the  New,  that  where  God's  Spirit  sends  out 
his  laborers,  he  also  permits,  in  judgment  and  trial,  the 
great  Adversary  often  to  awaken  new  zeal  and  to  exhibit 
a  fanatical  energy  in  Avithstanding,  maligning,  and,  if  it 
may  be,  suppressing,  the  work  and  testimony  of  God.  He 
who  let  loose  the  evil  spirits  and  the  false  prophets  on  the 
Court  and  about  the  Cabinet  of  Ahab ;  he  who  launched, 
by  a  wise  permission,  the  Sabean  and  the  Chaldean  on 
Job, — may,  in  equal  rightfulness  and  equal  infallibility 
of  purpose,  let  loose  all  the  blasts  of  error  and  all  the 
temi^ests  of  human  enmity  against  the  cause  of  his  truth, 
his  love,  and  his  churches.  But  he  means  it  only  as  he 
meant  the  successful  enchantments  of  the  Egyptians 
when  Moses  was  preparing  the  Exodus ;  as  he  allowed  the 
sons  of  Sceva  to  parody  and  rival  the  exorcisms  of  his 
own  apostles.  The  Exodus  lay  behind  the  ineffectual 
resistance  of  Abaddon.  The  conversion  of  pagan  Rome 
went  on  whilst  Nero  was  beheading  Paul,  and  whilst  Do- 
mitian  had  pent  up  the  last  surviving  apostle  at  Patmos. 
Error  and  Scandal,  and  false  Philosophy  and  Science  that 
would  affect  Materialism  or  Pantheism,  and  would  bid  us 
hold  our  Jehovah  mute,  till  they  have  settled  his  right  to 
speak — that  would,  very  superciliously,  bid  us  take  our  Im- 
manuel  out  of  the  way,  till  their  microscope  and  solar  prism 
and  telescope  and  crucible  have  fixed  the  rights  of  the 
world's  Moulder  and  the  world's  AVielder  and  the  world's 
Redeemer  and  the  world's  Judge  to  have  a  hearing. — all 
these  may  arise,  may  tower,  and  may  threaten.  But  their 
right  is  that  of  Sanballat  to  hinder  the  building  of  the  tem- 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  343 

pie  by  Nchemiah.  Opposition  m.iy  tease,  may  require  vig- 
ilance ;  but  as  to  its  inculcating  despair,  why  should  it  do 
that  in  a  world  whose  moral  face  Christianity  has,  by  the 
confession  of  Infidels  themselves,  so  wondrously  altered  ? 
God  does  not  prevent  the  battling  of  Hell  against  his  Son's 
heavenly  empire,  but  he  does  forbid  that  the  churches 
should  lose  heart,  as  if  the  contest  were  any  strange  thing, 
and  had  found  him  unaware  and  unprovided. 

We  are  to  remember,  again,  that  in  the  revulsions  of  the 
age  changes  occur,  so  sudden  and  so  widespread,  that  the 
simplest  Christian  may  Avell  expect  immense  revolutions 
yet  to  break  forth.  It  is  in  this  line  of  recent  precedents, 
as  it  is  also  in  the  line  of  very  ancient  predictions.  A 
nation  born  in  a  day  is  an  omen  of  the  old  Hebrew  seer. 
It  can  be  in  our  own  time  all  the  more  easily  credited. 
Would  our  fathers  have  believed  Japan  could  be  wrenched 
open,  as  in  our  days  it  is?  On  the  face  of  Europe,  what 
political  alterations  of  the  map  have  been  witnessed  by 
men  here  with  locks  not  yet  blanched  by  fifty  years?  On 
the  face  of  Africa,  how  has  exploration  been  pushed, 
boldly  often,  and  in  some  cases  as  successfully  as  boldly  ? 
In  Asia,  how  has  the  empire  of  Britain  been  threatened, 
and  been  restored  ?  On  our  own  continent,  how  recently 
did  the  interests  of  republican  government  seem  trembling 
on  the  verge  of  possible  revolution  and  social  convulsion? 
Sudden  and  strange  have  been  the  deliverances. 

But  vast  forces  remain  to  be  subdued,  and  it  may  to  the 
secular  thinker  seem  that  the  vast  obstacles  and  enmities 
need  to  be  eliminated.  Take  the  parallel  to  the  waste 
where  Moses,  the  exile,  is  keeping  sheep  for  his  father-in- 


344  LECTURES   ON   BAPTIST   HISTORY. 

law  in  Midi.in.  Take  it  to  the  Christian  church,  returned 
from  the  burying  of  Stephen,  and  ask  how  they  shall  sup- 
ply the  vacancy  thus  cruelly  made ;  and  how  they  shall 
counteract  the  red-handed  fanatic  Saul,  strong  in  the 
high  priest's  confidence,  and  intent  in  every  region  to 
secure  fresh  victims  from  Christ's  fold.  "Spent,"  but 
"charged."  The  dying  prayers  of  a  Jacob  have  not  been 
obliterated  from  the  heavenly  registers ;  and  Moses  shall 
yet  call  down  the  ten  plagues,  marshal  the  twelve  tribes, 
and  head  the  Exodus.  The  prayers  of  Stejjhen  to  a  Christ 
seen  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  are  in  remembrance ; 
and  on  the  way  to  fresh  martyrdoms,  God  will  strike 
down  the  raging  wolf  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  and  trans- 
mute him  into  one  of  the  leaders  and  watch-dog  guardians 
of  his  own  flock.  Though  as  yet  he  rage  against  them,  it 
is  in  God's  purposes,  that  it  shall  be  a  flock  multiplied 
b}^  that  converted  persecutor's  epistles,  supplications,  and 
appeals;  by  the  wide  circuit  of  his  apostolate,  and  by  the 
bright  lustre  of  his  heroic  martyrdom.  Do  not  fret 
because  God  is  invisible,  and  requires  your  faith  visible 
to  be  in  him  the  Invisible.  Do  not  impute  your  own  pet- 
tiness and  imbecility  to  the  Almighty,  who  stretched  the 
Avide  skies  in  their  glory.  "  Yet  has  he  the  residue  of  the 
Spirit."  Creation,  Scripture,  and  providence — none  of 
them  have  yet  emptied  him. 

It  is,  again,  a  teaching  of  Holy  Writ  that  the  Divine 
Illuminator,  although  more  gloriously  and  especially  the 
Author  of  conversion  and  evangelization,  is  yet  as  well 
also  the  True  Source  of  all  mental  illumination  and  ad- 
vancement in  the  individual  and  the  community.     Arts 


BAPTISTS   AND   THE   FUTURE.  345 

and  discoveries  and  inventions  arc  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Divine  Paraclete.  We  suppose  Watt,  Franklin,  Fulton, 
Stephenson,  and  JNIorse — each  man  wlio  has  benefited  his 
race  by  some  new  glimpses  into  Science  and  some  new 
application  of  its  secrets  in  Art — has  had,  for  this  world, 
a  mission  and  a  helping  that  was  from  that  higher  world. 
How  far  the  pathwa}^  of  discovery  and  advancement  in 
the  material  sciences  may  go,  we  cannot  conjecture.  But 
it  is  a  principle  of  these  oracles  that  from  One  Great  Cause 
come  the  wise  counsellor  and  the  skilful  worker.  The 
agencies  may  be  skeptical  and  atheistic  as  to  their  own 
personal  creed,  but  the  Almighty  Father  of  lights  can 
carry  forward  his  work  serenely  over  such  opposition  and 
athwart  such  instrumentalities,  just  as  in  those  methods 
by  which  Elizabeth  of  England  and  her  Cabinet  pene- 
trated and  counterworked  the  alien  plots  that  sought  her 
life  and  the  overthrow  of  her  throne.  All  God's  foes  play, 
unconsciously,  the  part  of  spies  in  behalf  of  the  very  Ruler 
against  whom  they  plot. 

Above  all,  God's  word  bids  the  churches  look  to  a  higher 
degree  of  energy  and  sacred  enterprise,  as  it  shall  be  de- 
veloped in  individual  believers  or  entire  communities  in 
the  favored  generations  of  our  race.  "  The  feeble  shall  be 
as  David,  and  David  as  the  angel  of  God."*  It  is  not  so 
much  a  multiplication  of  the  host  as  a  renewed  descent 
of  the  sevenfold  energies  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the 
warriors.  What  the  amount  of  the  residue  which  God 
has  in  the  forces  that  he  is  yet  to  draw  upon,  we  may 
infer  from  the  width  of  his  covenant;  it  takes  in  all  lands. 
*  Zech.  xii.  8. 


346  LECTURES   ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

We  may  infer  it  from  the  merits  of  the  Atoning  Victim ; 
he  is  "  the  Lamb  of  God,  without  blemish  and  vvitliout 
spot."  We  may  argue  it  from  the  breadth  of  the  Satanic 
SAvay ;  all  adverse  power,  however  old,  vast,  and  deeply 
rooted,  is  to  feel  the  overbearing  energies  of  the  God  who 
has  consecrated  the  planet  to  the  reward  of  his  own  De- 
scending and  Incarnated  and  Self-sacrificing  Son. 

The  great  secret  of  Nelson's  success  at  sea  and  of  Napo- 
leon's victories  on  the  land  was  the  turning  of  one  point 
of  irresistible  and  overbearing  force  on  the  weaker  centre 
of  the  lines  of  the  antagonist.  Now,  God  is  the  mightiest, 
whatever  the  point  in  the  great  array  of  Earth's  errors 
and  idolatries  and  infidelities  which  he  may  choose  to 
assail.  He  were  not  a  champion  adequate  to  win  right- 
fully and  wear  justly  the  title  of  King  of  saints  if  he 
were  not  fully  armed  with  the  skill  and  the  power,  in  this 
garnered  reserved  force,  this  residue  Spirit,  to  choose  well 
the  point  of  onset,  to  abide  well  in  sovereign  patience  the 
musterings  and  the  vauntings  of  the  foes.  "When  the 
enemy  cometh  in  like  a  flood,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
lift  up  a  standard  against  him."  Paine  vaunted  that  he 
had  hewn  down  the  trees  of  Scripture;  priests  might 
plant  them,  but  they  would  not  grow  again.  Volney 
wrote  his  Ruins.  In  their  original  France,  and  in  Cath- 
olic Spain,  and  in  English  India,  and  in  South  America, 
the  nominally  Catholic,  how  assiduously  has  the  work 
been  circulated.  Strauss  was  hailed,  how  jubilantly. 
Renan,  with  all  his  grace  of  lore  and  style,  has  uttered 
his  voice.  But  from  any  of  these  latter,  can  we  expect  a 
more  vigorous  or  enduring;  resistance  than  came  from  the 


BAPTISTS    AND    THE    FUTURE.  347 

Bolingbrokcs,  the  Tyndals  and  the  Humes,  the  Voltaires 
and  the  Didcrots,  man}'  of  these  hist,  intellectually,  not 
only  the  peers,  hut  far  the  superiors,  of  the  more  recent 
opponents?  No;  the  line  is  to  be  drawn  long,  and  closely 
serried.  But  in  the  centre,  foreseen  from  the  eternities — 
in  its  very  seat  of  defiance  and  audacity — it  is  to  he  pierced 
by  the  "  reserved  forces "  of  this  Spirit.  And  the  line 
broken,  as  in  Trafalgar  or  in  "Waterloo,  the  rout  will  be 
speedy  and  irretrievable.  The  stars  in  their  courses 
fought  against  Sisera.  The  stars  in  their  courses  fight 
for  our  Redeemer,  and,  like  that  light  which  flamed  over 
his  Bethlehem  manger,  are  all  loyal  to  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation.  On  the  side  of  man's  weakness  and  vast  re- 
sponsibilities, there  is  much  to  appal  in  the  motto  of 
Wren's  sun-dial:  "Spent,  but  charged."  But  there  is  a 
glad  and  bright  side,  when  Faith  looks  away  from  man 
to  man's  Maker  and  Helper.  The  gospel  presents  a  Sa- 
viour of  infinite  sufficiency  and  competency  and  worthi- 
ness. The  blood  of  his  cross  has  a  perpetuity  of  influ- 
ence, outspreading  itself  from  the  past  to  the  yet  future 
eternity,  and,  like  its  Divine  Shedder,  "from  everlasting 
to  everlasting."  In  the  purpose  of  the  Father,  surveying 
the  certainty  of  its  flow  and  the  efficacy  of  its  grace,  it  is 
that  of  the  Lamb  of  God  slain  from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  His  merits  exhaustless  and  his  sympathies 
constant  and  infinite,  his  people  look  to  his  blood  once 
shed,  his  priesthood  once  taken  up  and  ever  prevalent, 
his  omnipresence  flooding  our  divisions  and  insuffi- 
ciencies, and  they  cry  in  that  aspect,  "  Spent,"  freely  and 
divinely,  his  redeeming  strength  and  righteousness,  and 


348  LECTUEES    ON    BAPTIST    HISTORY. 

"charged."  The  Father  eyes  it,  the  Spirit  follows  it,  the 
Son  administers  it.  Providence  is  in  his  controlling, 
guiding  grasp.  The  last  retributions  of  the  last  day 
are  dispensed  by  this  Elder  Brother,  laden  with  our  sor- 
rows, bearing  our  sins,  and  charged  with  the  needs,  the 
hopes,  and  the  prayers  of  his  people.  Because  he  lives 
they  also  live,  not  only  to  subdue  the  world,  but  to  inherit 
Paradise.  Zion's  destinies  are  embedded  into  the  throne 
of  God,  and  knitted  into  the  heart  of  Christ. 


INDEX. 


Aaron,  17G. 

Aberpergwm,  residence  of  Williams'  fam- 
ily, 210. 

Abelard,  21.3. 

Abraham,  all  nations  to  be  blessed  in 
him,  1.5 ;  his  covenant  with  God,  59. 

Absalom,  92. 

Absolutism,  Christian  thinkers  in  con- 
flict with,  258. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  symmetry  of,  73. 

Africa,  exploration  of,pushed,  .S43 ;  South- 
ern, outrages  of  Holland  boors  in,  312; 
Western,  Baptist  mission  in,  308. 

Agabus,  prediction  of,  43. 

Ahab,  178. 

A  Kempis,  135. 

Albert,  Prince,  a  statuette  of,  283. 

Albigenses,  112 ;  moral  excellence  of, 
126. 

Alexander,  empire  of,  39;  his  Macedo- 
nian phalanx,  292. 

Allegory,  successful,  its  essence,  263. 

Allen  Apsley,  242. 

Alva,  127,  144,  233. 

Ambrose,  Lisle  Philippe,  121. 

Ames  on  Theology,  250. 

American  Baptists,  missions  of,  302. 

Amphitheatres  of  antiquity,  41. 

Anabaptists,  described  by  Dryden,  143 . 
drowned  in  Holland,  246;  in  Switzer- 
land and  Holland,  247  ;  of  the  Vosges, 
161 ;  origin  of  the  name,  145;  still  used 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  l(iO ; 
connection  with  Miinster  revolt,  154. 

Anchieta,  13.3. 

Anderson,  Christopher,  on  domestic  con- 
stitution, 326. 

Andrews,  93  ;  his  sermons,  271. 

Angus,  93. 

30 


Annas  demands  the  crucifixion,  60. 

Antichrist,  Mahomet,  121;  the  Komaa 
church,  119. 

Antichrists  within  the  church,  142. 

Antioch,  73. 

Ape  of  God,  Satan,  29,  104. 

Apocalypse,  its  imagery  from  Old  Testa- 
ment, 112. 

Arch  of  Titus,  75,  .322. 

AreopagUica,  Milton's,  224. 

Argonauts,  41. 

Arianism,  l.s7,  249. 

Ark,  of  Noah,  and  of  Moses,  29. 

Armada,  Spanish,  2,33. 

Arminiau  or  Eemonstrant  party,  170, 
187. 

Arnold,  Angelique,  1.35. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  of  Rugby,  286. 

Arts  and  arms  cannot  give  peace  to  con- 
science, 293. 

Asia,  help  sent  by  European  converts  to 
brethren  in,  294;  invasion  of,  by  Mace- 
donians, 292. 

Assaye,  battle  of,  301. 

Atterbury,  Bishop,  107. 

Augustus,  his  empire,  39;  reforms  of 
65;  voted  a  god  by  Roman  Senate,  51. 

Augustine,  279 ;  Confessions  of,  58 ;  his 
work.  The  City  of  God,  323  ;  on  the  sal- 
vation of  unbaptizcd  infants,  85. 

Bacon,  Lord,  212,  258. 
Bachelordom  as  a  reward,  43. 
Bail  lie,  214. 
Baldwin,  327. 
Ban,  123. 
Bancroft,  208. 

Baptism,  assumption  of  regeneration  by, 
83 ;   compared  to  the  deluge,  81 ;    in 
3i9 


350 


i]s;dex. 


Jordan,  27;  of  Holy  Ghost,  28;  Pascal 
on,  96;  penitents'  acknowledgment  in, 
30;  pledges  given  at,  98;  relation  to 
regeneration,  77;  rightful  recipients 
of,  83;  significance  of,  78;  views  of 
Waldenses  and  Lollards  on,  126;  was 
it  known  l^efore  John  ?  27. 

Baptist  literature,  328;  their  missions, 
190,295,306,329;  soldiers  reproved  by 
Sir  Matthew  Hale,  21G  ;  women,  242. 

Baptists  accused  of  Rationalism,  171 ; 
clergymen  of  the  Established  Church 
join,  536;  early  annals  of,  143;  encour- 
aged to  new  hopes,  325;  General,  in- 
cline to  Arianism  andSocinianism,  240; 
hold  that  the  Spirit  is  not  inherited, 
131  ;  in  the  British  fleet,  241 ;  in  Crom- 
well's army,  236;  in  Virginia  and  New 
England,  110;  Lipsius'  definition  of, 
171 ;  of  Holland,  their  origin,  128  ;  one 
of  tlie  two  witnesses  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse, 111;  Particular,  188;  Presbyte- 
rians and,  271;  Rationalism  and,  187, 
189 ;  under  prescriptive  prelacy,  271 ; 
their  views  in  British  army  and  navy, 
214  ;  Ypeij  and  Dermout's,  171. 

Barclay,  244. 

Barlow,  Bishop,  274. 

Barnes,  on  Revelation,  332. 

Barrow,  170. 

Baxter,  Richard,  57,  225,  23G,  237;  on 
the  New  Toleration,  215  ;  Sir  Matthew 
Hale  a  friend  of,  272. 

Bayley,  Bishop,  his  Practice  of  Piety,  271. 

Beausobre  on  the  Manichees,  142. 

Bedford,  its  special  interest,  280. 

iJedford,  Earl  of,  on  Roman  Church,  120. 

Bengel  on  the  millennium,  158. 

Beza,  210. 

Bible,  abolished  in  France,  253;  a  letter 
from  an  absent  parent,  179 ;  Carey's 
Bengalee,  300 ;  England  and  Holland 
owe  their  greatness  to,  253;  great  in- 
fluence of,  in  the  English  Revolution, 
231;  has  a  peculiar  structure,  10;  in- 
dividual right  to  study,  255;  influence 
on  the  United  States,  9;  Mennonite, 
144;  share  of  Baptists  in  translation 
and  circulation  of,  318;  to  be  read  by 
the  light  of  Holy  Spirit,  254;  transla- 
tions by  Baptists,  329 ;  Vacherot  thinks 


will  be  outgrown  and  superseded,  10; 
versions  by  Carey  and  associates,  302. 

Bisset,  Andrew,  237. 

Blake,  218,  242. 

Bloomfield,  Bishop,  opinion  of  Robert 
Hall,  305. 

Boardnian,  Judson's  associate,  303. 

Bodin,  205. 

Boodhist  books,  336. 

Book  of  Sports,  269. 

Borromeo,  135. 

Bossuet,  126 ;  allows  the  prevalence  of 
immersion,  80  ;   Universal  History,  323. 

Boston,  Uuitarianism  resisted  by  Bap- 
tists in,  189. 

Brainard,  David,  209,  314. 

Breda,  Declaration  of,  244. 

Brethren,  Plymouth,  218. 

Brissot,  154. 

British,  constitution,  231 ;  empire  in  In- 
dia threatened,  but  restored,  343;  Par- 
liaments, 56;  policy  in  India,  297. 

Broadus,  327. 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  on  a  pilgrimage,  266. 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  304. 

Bruis,  Henry  de,  128. 

Buchanan,  George,  200. 

Buckle,  feasted  on  Pilc/rim's  Progress,  267. 

Bulwer,  the  elder,  opinion  of  Hall,  306. 

Bunsen,  150. 

Banyan,  225,  244,  263,  326;  as  a  boy,  269; 
a  Particular  Baptist,  188 ;  appeal  by  his 
wife,  273;  a  swearer,  270;  De  Morgan  on, 
264 ;  his  Calvinism,  276  ;  his  controver- 
sy with  Edward  Fowler,  170,  275;  his 
doctrine,  271 ;  his  experience,  271 ;  his 
felicity  as  an  allegorist,  264;  his  por- 
traitures, 274,  278 ;  in  the  army,  269 ;  in 
prison,  272,  280 ;  joins  Gittbrd's  church, 
270;  lived  in  an  age  of  changes,  269; 
Lord  Chancellor  Canipbell's  opinion 
of,  276;  love  for  bell-ringing,  269; 
marriage,  270 ;  not  a  drunkard,  270 ; 
on  the  Quakers,  244;  probably  in  royal 
army,  269 ;  reading,  271 :  repudiates 
court  patronage,  245;  saved  from  death 
on  his  post,  270;  said  to  bo  responsible 
for  Venner's  revolt,  154;  thoroughly 
evangelical,  250;  wife's  dowry,  270;  his 
death,  275 ;  his  monument  iu  Bunhill 
Fields,  276. 


INDEX. 


351 


Riirke,  181,299. 

Burniah,  Jiidson  in,  303. 

Burnet,  170,  184. 

Burton,  story  of  eighteen  heads  of  John 

Baptist,  34. 
Butler,  Bishop,  187 ;  his  Analogy,  170,  276. 
Butler,  Samuel,  autltor  of  HtiJibras,  220. 

Caiaphas,  go,  74. 

Calvin,  157,  210. 

Camden,  211. 

Caniisard,  15G. 

Campion's  account  of  baptism  in  Ire- 
land, 80. 

Canonization  of  saints,  209. 

Carey,  Felix,  303. 

Carey,  Lot,  308. 

Carey,  William,  108,  296,  339;  Fuller's 
defence  of,  305;  missionary  sermon  of, 
298;  sails  for  India,  299;  settles  at 
Serampore,  300. 

Carlyle,  137,  239. 

Carlyle,  >[rs.,  gives  a  copy  of  the  Pil- 
grim,  282. 

Carson,  Alexander,  191,  326. 

Carthage,  synod  of,  84. 

Castes,  evil  effects  of,  310. 

Catacombs,  refuge  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians, 55. 

Catholic  Emancipation  Bill,  67. 

Catholics,  true  piety  of,  135. 

Cavour,  Count,  204. 

Celestial  Railroad,  by  Hawthorne,  286. 

Chalmers,  193,  328 ;  his  opinion  of  But- 
ler's Analogy,  276. 

Chambers,  Domestic  Annals  of  Scotland,  242. 

Champagny,  C'omtede,  129 ;  history  of  the 
Jewish  State  and  Roman  Empire,  54. 

Charles  I.,  209 ;  and  Colonel  Harrison, 
237  ;  united  by  marriage  with  Roman 
Catholics,  257 ;  value  of  the  Bible  in 
the  time  of,  2.54. 

Charles  II.,  86  ;  aided  by  a  Quaker,  273  ; 
his  chaplain,  184;  a  Roman  Catholic 
secretly,  257. 

Cheeseborough,  Miss,  book  on  Mennon- 
ites,  Ifil. 

Cheever  on  Pilgrim's  Progress,  265. 

Chemnitz,  147. 

Childhood,  a  new  era  for,  inaugurated 
by  Christ,  46. 


Chillingworth,  254. 

Choate,  Rufus,  on  Standfast  at  the  river, 
1G7. 

Christ,  15,  46,  47,  48,  49,  56,  59,  60,  105, 
109,  317. 

Christ's  peddlers,  146. 

Christians'  estrangement  from  the  world, 
mistaken  view  of,  IGl. 

Christian  thinkers  in  conflict  with  Ab- 
solutism, 258. 

Christianity,  its  introduction  a  great 
moral  revolution,  9;  means  of  its 
power,  3:55 ;  its  resources,  3.35. 

Church,  duty  of  the,  101;  simulated  by 
corrupt  bodies,  142;  spirit  of  worldly 
aggrandizement  in,  103 ;  ultimate  lot 
of,  115 ;  unity  of,  101 ;  what  it  is,  95. 

Churches  indifferent  to  prophecies  con- 
cerning error,  187 ;  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 98. 

Church  history,  91. 

Citizens  in  Christ's  empire  begin  with 
regeneration,  73. 

Civilization  not  to  precede  Christianity, 
339. 

Clarendon,  241 ;  obtains  pension  for  Law- 
son's  family,  242. 

Clark,  Adam,  128. 

Claudius,  Emperor,  his  singular  boon,  43; 
pelted  by  crusts  of  bread,  43;  twice 
married  and  divorced,  43. 

Claudius  Matthias,  185. 

Clive,  107  ;  conquests  of,  in  India,  296. 

Coin  minted  when  Titus  conquered  Pal- 
estine, 77. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  211,  212,  245. 

Coleridge,  178,  249;  on  the  Pilgrim,  265. 

Coligny,  156. 

Collard,  Rover,  155. 

Colleges  in  India,  301,  .302. 

Collegiants  or  Rhynsburgers,  247. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  10, 14. 

Commerce  the  welfare  of  nations,  311. 

Commonwealth  of  England,  231. 

Commune  in  France,  308. 

Compromises  for  peace,  3.33. 

Condorcet  on  Pascal's  Thoughts,  183. 

Cone,  Spencer  H.,  327. 

Conrad  van  Beuningcn,  247. 

Constantine,  city  of,  42;  on  baptism,  84. 

Convulsiouuaires,  155. 


352 


INDEX. 


Cooke,  Dr.,  191. 

Cornelius  on  the  revolt  of  Miinster,  153. 

Cotton,  John,  220. 

Cotton,  Mather,  208. 

Covenant  of  Christ  with  his  flock,  59 ; 
of  God  with  Abraham,  59. 

Coverdale,  302. 

Cowboys  of  West  Chester,  162. 

Cow  per,  225. 

Cox,  Bishop,  120. 

Cox,  son  of  the  bishop,  236. 

Cromwell,  214,  217,  232;  breaks  up  Rump 
Parliament,  239 ;  curse  of,  239 ;  stops 
tlie  Waldensian  massacre,  234. 

Cross  of  Christ,  its  shamefulness,  52. 

Crusades,  14. 

Cudworth,  170. 

Cum  Towey,  birthplace  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams, 210. 

Cumberland,  170. 

D'Alembert,  133. 

Daniel's  imagery  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 

.55;  prophecy  of  the  millennium,  150. 
Dante,  124. 

D'Aubigne,  Merle,  193. 
David,  313;  promised  a  sure  throne  and 

a  divine  progeny,  15. 
Davis,  Benjamin,  326. 
Dead  Sea,  19. 
Dean,  228. 

Death-warrant  of  Charles,  its  signers,  2.39. 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  title  bestowed,  80. 
Defoe,  his  characters,  278. 
Deism,  or  Naturalism,  170. 
De  Laune,  244. 
Deliverer  from  the  East,  44. 
De  Morgan,  Prof.,  on  Bunyan,  264. 
Dent's  Plain  Man's  Pathway,  271. 
Dermout,  128,  172 ;  on  Baptists,  171. 
De  Sacy,  135. 
De  Tocqueville,  103. 

Diderot,  133,  347 :  Encydopcedia,  185,  253. 
Dominic,  rule  of,  226. 
Domitian,  154. 
Donatists,  129. 
Doubting  Castle,  195. 
Draft  Riots,  163. 
Dryden,    on    Episcopal      and     Roman 

churches,  143  ;  his  W/iite  Hind,  264. 
Dudith,  187. 


Dunbar,  Duncan,  327. 

Duncan,  Lord,  191  ;  Martin,  147,  246. 

Bunkers,  161,  247. 

Dutch,  naval  engagement  (1665),  241. 

Du  Veil,  converted  Jew,  309. 

Dyer,  192. 

Dykes,  236. 

East  India  Company  and  the  religion 
of  Hindoos,  297  ;  on  missions,  299. 

Eck,  147. 

Edinburgh  Review  on  Carey,  301. 

Edward  VI.,  England  under,  253. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  195,  209;  History  of 
Redemption,  323. 

Egypt,  grain-ships  from,  at  Rome,  43. 

Eliot,  232. 

Elijah,  66,  178 ;  errand  to  the  widow  of 
Zarepliath,  49;  reproduced  in  John 
Baptist,  23. 

Elisha's  healing  of  Naaman,  49. 

Ellicott,  93. 

Elliott  On  the  Millennium,  157,  332. 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  265;  re- 
ceived baptism  by  immersion,  80;  the 
Bible  in  the  time  of,  253. 

Encyclripiedia  of  Diderot,  185. 

English  language,  prevalence  of,  330. 

English  missions  in  India,  304. 

Encouragement  to  effort,  335. 

Erskine  on  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  61. 

Eucharist,  administered  to  infants,  98. 

Europe  asking  missionaries  of  Asia,  293. 

Evangelization  of  India,  107. 

Evans,  Christmas,  326 

Evelyn,  236. 

Ewing,  Greville,  191. 

Faerie  Queen,  Spenser's,  264. 

Faith,  the  channel  of  regeneration,  72. 

Fanatics   of  Westphalia,  scum   of  the 

Reformation,  162. 
Farrar,  93. 

Fathers  of  Baptist  Church,  326. 
Featley,  216. 
Fenelon,  135. 
Fisher,  Bishop,  96. 
Fisher,  Samuel,  236. 
Fletcher,  Richard,  327. 
Florence,  Coury,  treatise  on  The  Slate  of 

Unbaptized  Infants,  85. 


INDEX. 


353 


Foster,  James,  18S,  249 

Foster,  John,  32G. 

Fowler,  controversy  with  Biinyan.  IfiO. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  and  India  Bill,  300. 

Fox,  George,  245. 

P'oxe,  John,  206. 

France,  revolution  in,  20,  67;  Reign  of 
Terror,  142. 

Fratres  Poloni,  250. 

Free,  Bible  and  church  among  Americans 
and  English,  249;  church  needs  the  Spir- 
it of  God,  221, 226 ;  press,  224 ;  school,  225. 

Freedom,  requirements  of,  329. 

French  prophets,  1.56. 

Frerc,  Sir  Bartle,  308. 

Frey,  309. 

Fuller,  Andrew,  189,  195,  297,  326;  an- 
swers to  pamphlets  against  Indian  niis- 
•sions,  304;  on  the  Iluly  War,  266;  sec- 
retary of  missionary  society,  298. 

Fuller,  Richard,  327. 

Future  of  the  Baptists,  325. 

Gale,  188. 

Gaussen,  192. 

Gentile  converts,  73. 

Gentiles,  invasion  of  Jerusalem  by,  61. 

Germany,  Peasant  War  of,  143. 

Gibbon's  lliMory  of  Rome,  54. 

Gibraltar  held  by  Britain,  42. 

GifTord,  Banyan  joins  his  church,  270. 

Gill  a  Particular  Baptist,  188,  326. 

Gilpin  rewrites  the  Pilgrim,  267. 

Gnostic,  142. 

Goffe,  the  regicide,  239. 

Gog  and  Magog,  333. 

Gold,  rust  of,  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  331. 

Golden  calf,  176. 

Goldsmith  on  Samuel  Johnson,  264. 

Gospel,  50,  314  ;  for  the  lowest,  331 ;  the 

only  remedy  for  social  evils,  313. 
Grantham,  249. 

Greece,  Baptist  mission  in,  307. 
Greek  Church  more  feared  than  Turks, 

333. 
Greg,  opinion  of  Robert  Ilall,  306. 
Greville,  Ewing,  191. 
Grotius,  a  Catholic,  on  Revelation,  332. 
Gualter,  121. 

Guizot's  Notes  to  Gibbon,  54 
Gunpowder  Plot,  233. 

30 «  : 


Habakkuk,  a  prophet  of  the  Pen,  18. 

Hailes,  Lord,  answer  to  Gibbon,  54. 

Ilalbertsma,  248. 

Ilaldane,  Robert,  75,  191,  326. 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  216 ;  his  love  of  bell- 
ringing,  269. 

Hall,  Robert,  the  elder,  friend  of  Carey, 
297  ;  the  younger,  126,  192,  305. 

Hampden,  232. 

Hansard  Knollys,  236. 

Harding,  Sir  Henry,  opinion  of  Have- 
lock,  301. 

Harris,  Ira,  327. 

Harrison,  General  Thomas,  218,  237 ; 
hopes  for  millennial  kingdom,  240; 
AValter  Scott,  unjust  to,  277. 

Harvey,  217. 

Haseall,  328. 

Hase,  130;  account  of  martyrdom  of 
Baptists,  1.59;  on  the  men  of  Miinster, 
157  ;  on  Rationalism,  176. 

Hastings,  Warren,  trial  of,  299. 

Havelock,  108,  301. 

Haves  and  Wants  of  society,  310. 

Hawthorne's  CelesHal  Railrond,  104,  286. 

Hindoo  gentleman's  opinion  of  Moham- 
medanism, 308. 

History  of  Redemption,  by  Edwards,  323. 

Heber  on  Indian  missionaries,  302. 

Hebrew  parallelism,  20. 

Hefele,  84. 

Hegel,  .323. 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  184. 

Henrietta  Maria,  evil  counsellor  of 
Charles  I.,  257. 

Henry,  Matthew  and  Philip,  190. 

Henry  IV.,  of  France,  134,  156,  257. 

Henry  VIII.,  86. 

Herder,  .323. 

Herod  and  John  Baptist,  21,  24. 

Herodian  family,  immorality  of,  21. 

Herodias,  24. 

Hewlctts,  the,  death  of,  243. 

Hcylin,  112. 

Hobbes,  120,  125,  233,  258. 

Holcroft  on  Pilgrim's  Progress,  266. 

Holland  and  Britain,  connection  be- 
tween, 248;  refuge  of  Protestants,  235. 

Holy  Ghost,  72;  calls  Paul  to  Europe, 
293;  necessary  to  life  and  growth  of 
Christian  Church,  251 ;  reserves  of,  337. 


354 


INDEX. 


Holy  War,  Bunyan's,  194;  and  Pilgrim's 
Progress  compared,  268. 

Hooker,  the  judicious,  175. 

Horn,  George,  219. 

Howard,  John,  298;  a  hearer  of  Baptists, 
281;  visits  Bedford  jail,  281. 

Hubiueier,  Balthasar,  147;  his  martyr- 
dom, 148;  his  wife  drowned,  149. 

Huguenots,  155. 

Hiiinauity,  with  Bunyan,  Rousseau,  and 
Milton,  278. 

Hume,  136;  on  prophecy,  17. 

Hurd  on  the  millennium,  157. 

Huj^s,  109,  145. 

Hutchinson,  Colonel,  218,  237;  Mrs.,  242. 

Idols  made  in  England  for  India,  311. 
Ignorance     fostered     by    the     Romish 

Church,  331. 
Immersion    practised   by  Holland  and 

Switzerland,  247. 
Indenture  on  old  English  deeds,  11. 
Index  and  Inquisition,  authority  of,  256. 
India,  Carey's  mission  in,  296;  conquests 

of  Clive  in,  296;  evangelization  of,  107; 

Unitarian  mission  in,  188. 
Indians,  North  American,  312. 
Individualism  of  Baptists,  157. 
Infant  baptism  rejected  by  Hubmeier, 

147;  rejected  by  Rothman,  152. 
Infants,  unbaptized,  state  after  death,  84. 
Infidelity  confuted  by  actual  results  of 

missions,  310. 
Inscription  on  the  cross,  317. 
Interpretation,  apostle's  rule  for,  12. 
Irish  massacre,  233 ;  avenged,  239. 
Irving,  Edward,  218. 
Isaiah,  predictions  of,  16,  17,  18. 

James  I.,  269 ;  Bible  in  the  time  of,  253. 

James  II.,  86;  and  Kiffln,  243;  indul- 
gence to  Nonconformists,  245  ;  Roman 
Catholic,  257. 

Jansenius,  influence  of,  334;  on  the  sal- 
vation of  unbaptized  infants,  85. 

Janus,  temple  of,  closed,  39. 

Japan  now  open,  343. 

Japheth  in  the  tents  of  Shem,  316. 

Jay,  John.  327. 

Jefferson  on  Nathaniel  Macon,  23. 

Jeffreys,  86,  225,  243. 


Jenner,  217. 

Jeremiah's  horn,  136. 

Jerome  of  Prague,  109,  145. 

Jesuits'  response  to  Pascal,  133. 

Jesus  baptized,  why?  27;  continues  and 
deepens  the  work  of  John,  45. 

Jews,  possibility  of  conversion  of,  309; 
their  dispersion,  61,  178;  their  polity, 
105;  their  State  and  the  Roman  Eui- 
pire,  by  Champagny,  54. 

Job,  29. 

Jogues,  133. 

John  the  Baptist,  9,  18;  childhood  and 
youth  of,  17  ;  closes  O.  T.  and  opens  N. 
T.,  35;  lung-standing  prophecy  con- 
cerning, 14,  17;  tradition  of  his  eighteen 
heads,  34;  why  meet  such  a  death?  25. 

John  the  Evangelist,  31,  71,  72;  warning 
of  persecution,  142. 

John,  King  of  England,  14. 

John  of  Leyden,  163. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  as  writer  of  fables,  264. 

Jonah,  his  preaching,  18. 

Jones,  Evan,  and  his  son,  missionaries 
to  Cherokee  Indians,  306. 

Jones,  Sir  William,  300. 

Jonson,  Ben,  220. 

Joost,  Van  Vondel,  Mennonite  poet,  246. 

Josephus,  History  of  Jerusalem,  53;  testi- 
mony to  profligacy  of  the  times,  20. 

Joshua,  66. 

Judson,  Adoniram,  302,  315,  327;  goes  to 
Burmah,  303  ;  death,  304. 

Julia  dies  in  exile,  42. 

Julius  Ctesar,  empire  of,  39. 

Kalee,  her  necklace,  34. 

Karens,  churches  among  the,  303. 

Keach,  244,  326. 

Kelyng,  Judge,  hostile  to  Bunyan,  272. 

Kendrick,  Nathaniel,  328. 

Kettering,  missionary  society  at,  298. 

Kiffin,  William,  243. 

Kingdom  of  Christ,  52;  of  God,  .39,  94; 

imaged  by  Daniel,  55 ;  "  within  you," 

spiritual,  45,  68. 
Knertz,  his  work  Sabbaia,  247. 
Knibb,  329. 

Knipperdoling  of  Munster,  162. 
Knollys,  Hansard,  326. 
Knox,  John,  210. 


INDEX. 


355 


Kossuth,  33. 

Kriimmacher  on  future  of  Baptists,  325. 

Labor  and  capital,  310. 

Lacy,  156. 

La  Fayette,  154. 

Lamb,  ilie,  the  Temple  and  Sun  of  New 

Jerusalem,  30. 
Lambert,  General,  237. 
Lamennais,  213. 
Last  day,  retributions  of,  348. 
Latimer,  Hugh,  129,  204. 
Latiludinarian,  divines,  1G9;   origin   of 

the  name,  170;  school,  254. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  107,  170,  235. 
Lavater,  .309. 
Laws  and  lawmakers,  56. 
Lawgiver,  Christ,  57. 
Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  218,  308;  Sir  John, 

308. 
Lawson,  Vice-Admiral,  218,  241,  242. 
Laymen  occupy  the  pulpit,  236. 
Lee,  Ann,  156,  157. 
Leicester,  Earl  of,  211. 
Leighton,  125. 
Leipsic,  battle  of,  187. 
Lenthall,  239. 

Lessing  on  Rationalists,  186. 
Lewis,  Tayler,  on  the  Holy  War,  265. 
Leyden,  tailor  of,  153. 
L'Hopital,  205. 
Liberty,  222. 
Lightfoot,  188. 

Lilburn,  Robert  and  John,  237. 
Lincoln,  Bishop  of,  212. 
Lindsay,  192. 

Lipsius'  opinion  of  the  Baptists,  171. 
Livingstone,  David,  312. 
Lloyd,  Bishop,  112. 
Locke,  205. 

Lollards,  British,  111,  145;   rejected   in- 
fant baptism,  126;  writ  against,  86. 
Lord's  Supper,  99. 
Louis    XIV.,    156;    absolutism    of,    2.54; 

dislike    to    Conrad    van    Beuningen, 

247. 
Loyola,  133. 

Lueknow,  relief  of,  301. 
Lucy,  2.37. 
Luther,  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  271 ; 

preceded  by  the  Waldenses,  145. 


Lycurgus,  reforms  of,  65. 
Lyons,  Baptists  in,  308. 

Macaul.w  censures  John  Mason  Neale, 
268;  opinion  of  ParudUe  Lvsi  and  I'U- 
grim's  Progress,  250,  268. 

Macedonia,  appeal  from,  291. 

Macedonians,  description  of,  292. 

Machserus,  26. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  209;  opinion  of 
Robert  Hall,  305. 

Maclay,  Archibald,  327. 

Maclean,  Archibald,  .326. 

Macleod,  Norman,  193. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  a  Baptist,  23,  .327. 

Madagascar,  martyrs  cheered  by  Bun- 
yan's  Pilgrim,  284. 

Magdalen,  48. 

Maginnis,  John  S.,  327. 

Magna  Charta,  14. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  103;  on  Roman  em- 
pire, 40. 

Malachi,  10;  prophecy  of  John,  13,  17. 

Malta  held  by  Britain,  42. 

Malvenda,  121. 

Man,  how  to  be  free,  true,  and  noble,  23; 
not  sprung  from  mollusk  or  ape,  23. 

Manicheans,  142. 

Manicheism,  334. 

Manning,  Archbishop,  119,  122. 

Mansel  on  the  Gnostics,  143. 

Marat,  142,  154. 

Marcy,  327. 

Marriage,  compulsory  in  Rome,  43;  dis- 
credited in  Rome,  42;  integrity  of,  vin- 
dicated by  Christ,  47. 

Marshman,  300;  Chinese  Bible,  302;  con- 
tribution of  money  to  missions,  302. 

Martcnsen  on  the  millennium,  158. 

Martial,  .321,  322. 

Martin,  145. 

Martyn,  Henry,  209,  314. 

Martyrdom  of  a  Baptist  maiden,  1,59;  of 
a  Baptist  in  Switzerland,  160;  of  Hub- 
meier,  148;  of  Uubmeier's  wife,  149; 
of  Tauber,  147. 

Martyrs,  1.3i,  206;  Foxe's  Book  of,  271. 

Mary,  Bloody,  her  sorrows,  2.53. 

Mary  Queen  of  Scot.s,  256,  26.5. 

Massacres  of  Walden.ses  and  Irish,  234. 

Masscy,  Gerald,  on  Bunyan,  266. 


356 


INDEX. 


Masson,  213. 

Materialism,  331. 

Matter,  M.,  on  the  Gnostics,  143. 

Matthew's  Gospel,  date  of,  294. 

Matthew  Henry,  190. 

Matthias,  Claudius,  185. 

Mede  on  the  millennium,  157. 

Mediterranean,  Napoleon's  opinion  of,  40. 

Melchizedec,  29. 

Mendelssohn,  .309. 

Menno,  147,246. 

Mennonite  Bible,  144. 

Mennonites,  128;  and  Arianism,  187,  190; 
call  sprinkling  baptism,  246;  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  161 ;  of 
Southern  Russia,  161 ;  their  connection 
with  Quakers,  244 ;  their  decline  in  Hol- 
land, 248. 

Mental  illumination,  source  of,  344. 

Mercer,  327. 

Metaphors,  caution  concerning,  263. 

Methodism,  beginning  of,  109;  con- 
demned by  Established  Church,  110. 

Micah,  predictions  by,  16. 

Michel  Angelo,  82. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  on  the  miracles,  177. 

Millenarianisra  denounced  by  Church 
of  England,  157. 

Millennium,  151. 

Milman's  notes  to  Gibbon,  54. 

Milton,  John,  214,  218,  234;  a  Socinian, 
250;  his  idea  of  humanity,  278;  his 
third  wife  a  Baptist,  250;  on  free  press, 
224;  whipping-boy  for  Moses,  252. 

Miracles,  not  incredible,  177. 

Missal  in  place  of  the  Bible,  253. 

Mission  of  Robert  Haldane  to  India,  192. 

Missions, Baptist,  329;  modern,  God's  way 
in,  338 ;  would  any  have  their  work  un- 
done? 341. 

Missionary  work,  necessity  of,  enforced 
by  New  Testament,  295  ;  opinion  of 
East  India  Company  on,  299. 

Moderatism,  193. 

Mohammedanism,  its  revival  probable, 
309  ;  foe  of  English  in  India,  308. 

Monck,  247. 

Monmouth's  rebellion,  243. 

Montague,  Lord  Sandwich,  removes  Bap- 
tists from  fleet,  240. 

Montanists,  129. 


Moody,  Lady,  242. 

Moravians,  145. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  205 

Morley,  Lije  of  Voltaire,  186. 

Mormons,  American  Christianity  not 
responsible  for,  156. 

Mornay,  156. 

Moses,  29 ;  his  prophecy  of  Israel's  dis- 
tresses and  Christ's  coming,  16. 

Mosheim,  128. 

Motto  on  old  sun-dial  at  All  Souls'  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  321. 

Miinster,  madmen  of,  143 ;  the  Reforma- 
tion in,  152. 

Miinzer,  Thomas,  150. 

Murray,  Sir  George,  252. 

Naaman,  49. 

Napier,  247. 

Napoleon  I.,  191 ;  opened  a  career  to  all 
talents,  141 ;  opinion  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  40. 

Napoleon  III.,  9. 

Nazarene,  the,  70. 

Neale,  Charles,  presents  the  Pilgrim  to 
his  sou,  267. 

Neale,  John  M.,  recasts  the  Pilgrim,  268. 

Neander,  93,  309;  concerning  the  Wal- 
denses,  125;  opinion  on  free  press,  225. 

Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  55. 

Newcome,  238. 

Newman,  John  Henry,  97. 

New  Testament  the  beginning  of  church 
history,  94;  Breton  translation  of,  306; 
Cherokee  translation  of,  306;  supple- 
ments the  Old,  13,  57. 

Newton,  John,  led  Thomas  Scott  from 
Socinianism,  296. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  247;  Arian  errors  of, 
250;  treatise  on  Daniel,  111. 

Nicodemus,  69. 

Nicolai,  185. 

Niebuhr  on  the  Peasants'  War,  150. 

Noel,  Baptist  W.,  327. 

Offer,  George,  on  the  originality  of 

Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  285. 
Old  Testament  requires  the  New,  13. 
Oliver  Cromwell,  210;  his  Protectorate, 

231. 
Oncken,  labors  of,  307 


INDEX. 


357 


Opdara,  Admiral,  241. 

Opposition,    God    often    pernvits,    342 ; 

never  should  cause  despair,  343. 
Ordinances,  to  change,  a  dangerous  as- 

suniptiuu  in  the  church,  83. 

Pag.\n  mysteries,  purification  by  water 
and  blood  in,  29. 

Paganism,  its  overthrow  accounted  for 
by  human  causes,  54. 

Paine,  Thomas,  his  boast,  34G. 

Palestine,  a  dependency  of  Rome,  44. 

Palmer,  Herbert,  215. 

Paradise,  Sinai,  Calvary  the  great  points 
in  history,  324. 

Paris,  Baptists  in,  308. 

Parker,  Theodore,  on  Bunyan,  267. 

Parliaments,  British,  56. 

Parr,  305. 

Particular  Baptists,  1S8. 

Pascal,  Blaise,  96,  135,  279:  on  Truth  and 
Liberty,  222;  Thoughts  of,  58,  183. 

Passover,  25. 

Patrick,  Bishop,  his  Pilgrim,  285. 

Patteson,  John  Coleridge,  murder  of,  311. 

Paul,  his  exultation  over  European 
converts,  294;  in  Rome,  the  centre  of 
Gentile  civilization,  73 ;  vision  at 
Troas,  291. 

Paulicians,  129. 

Paulus,  93,  186. 

Peasants'  War  of  Germany,  143 ;  Vol- 
taire, Niehuhr,  and  Bunseu  on,  150. 

Peck,  .John  M.,  328. 

Peddlers,  Christ's,  early  Christians,  146. 

Pelagius,  213. 

Patriarchal  faith  honored  by  Moses,  29. 

Penn,  William,  203;  and  Indians,  312. 

Pentecost,  251. 

Pepys,  240. 

Persecutions  under  Charles  II.,  244. 

Peters,  Hugh,  21.3. 

Pfander,  Dr.,  244,  309. 

Philosophy  of  history,  323;  in  Paul's 
Epistles,  324. 

Philosophy  of  Thought,  258. 

Pike,  John  G.,  188,  249. 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  58,  195;  changes  be- 
tween first  and  second  editions,  169; 
Hulg  War  and,  compared,  268;  in  blank 
verse  and  rhyme,  203;  its  perfect  orig- 


inality, 285;  its  theology,  265;  lan- 
guag-ns  into  which  translated,  283-285; 
rewritten  by  Gilpin,  2G7 ;  spurious 
third  part  of,  277;  undervalued,  267; 
M'eslmiitiier  Review  on,  264. 

Pillar  of  Hercules,  41. 

Pitt,  younger,  301. 

Plain  Man's  Pathway,  by  Dent,  271. 

Plassey,  battle  of,  296. 

Plato,  his  theory  of  a  republic,  142. 

Plymouth  Brotliren,  218. 

Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  123. 

Pope,  107 ;  lines  on  Foster,  188. 

Porson,  305. 

Port  R  )yal,  men  and  women  of,  .3.34. 

Posthumous  fame  won  by  Bunyan,  283. 

Powell,  Vavasour,  243,  244. 

Practice-  of  Piety,  by  Bishop  Bayley,  271. 

Prayer,  concerts  of,  195  ;  defined,  315. 

Prelacy  hostile  to  Baptists,  271. 

Prendcrgast,  slanders  against  Carey,  305. 

Prerogatives  of  Christ  as  a  King,  56. 

Presbyter,  Milton's  definition  of,  215. 

Presbyterian  iulluenee  on  Baptists,  271. 

Presbyterians  and  Rationalism,  190. 

Present,  disposition  to  place  it  above  the 
past,  183. 

Press,  free,  224. 

Pressense,  93. 

Priestly,  192;  impression  made  on  him 
by  Cave  of  Despair,  266. 

Prophecy  fulfilled,  316;  necessity  for  the 
study  of,  157. 

Prophecies  are  miracles,  178. 

Prophets  of  the  Pen  and  of  the  Voice,  18. 

Proudhon,  142. 

Purgatory,  Hubmeier's  simile,  148. 

Purification  in  pagan  mysteries,  29. 

Puritanism,  New  England,  279. 

Puritans,  107;  England's  prosperity  un- 
der, 3.53:  freedom  identified  with,  235; 
reviled,  220;  Roger  Williams  and,  212. 

Pyramids,  41. 

Pym,  232. 

Quakers  and  Charles  II.,  273;  their  re- 
lation to  Baptists,  243. 
Quick,  meaning  of,  158. 

Rabble  of  Rome,  51. 
Racine,  a  saying  of,  24. 


358 


INDEX. 


Rainerius,  125. 

Randolph,  John,  327. 

Rastell,  126. 

Rationalism  among  Mennonites  and  Qua- 
kers, 248;  Baptists  accused  of,  171,  187  ; 
Hase  and  Saisset  on,  176;  modern 
meaning  of,  174;  of  Germany,  184;  Ro- 
man Catholicism  and,  193;  scandalizes 
scotfers,  186;  similarity  to  Latitudi- 
narianisra,  191;  uncertainty  of,  196; 
what  has  been  done  to  resist  It,  189. 

Reason,  its  province,  177 ;  the  postman, 
delivering  us  God's  message,  180;  wor- 
shippers of,  259. 

Reform  Bill,  the,  67;  needed,  65. 

Reformation,  false,  strengthens  evil,  1.5.3. 

Regeneration,  belief  or  faith  in  Christ, 
72;  beginning  of  citizenship  in  Christ's 
empire,  73;  contains  the  pledge  of  last- 
ing reform,  68;  John's  statement  of,  72; 
relation  to  baptism,  73;  the  grandest 
reform,  70. 

Reign  of  Terror  in  France,  142. 

Religion  of  Protestants,  Bible,  as  read  by 
light  of  Holy  Spirit,  254;  not  a  matter 
of  heritage,  73. 

Religious  liberty,  204  ;  origin  of  the  doc- 
trine, 216. 

Religious  press,  328. 

Remission  of  sins,  how  intimated  by 
John  Baptist,  25. 

Remonstrants,  170,  187. 

Renan,  93,  346. 

Repentance,  baptism  an  expression  of, 
27;  preached  by  John  Baptist,  25. 

Republic,  its  aspect  in  other  countries, 
142. 

Reschi,  133. 

Restoration,  the,  in  England,  254. 

Revolution,  a  means  of  reform,  66 ;  in 
America,  162;  in  France,  67;  of  1688, 
246;  to  be  expected,  343;  vice  jostles 
virtue  in,  142. 

Rbynsburgers,  or  Collegiants,  247. 

Rice,  Luther,  appeals  to  American 
churches,  302. 

Richard  Ca^ur  de  Lion,  14. 

Ritualists,  British,  care  for  the  poor,  330. 

Roberts,  Thomas,  missionary  to  Indians, 
306. 

Robespierre,  142,  154. 


Robinson,  Robert,  192;  his  advice,  279. 

Rochester,  178. 

Rogers,  martyr,  206. 

Rolls,  "  written  within  and  without,"  .50. 

Roman  Church  described  by  Dryden, 
143;  fosters  ignorance,  331. 

Roman  empire,  40 ;  foretold  by  Daniel, 
40,  44;  history  of,  by  Gibbon,  54;  wide 
sweep  of,  41. 

Romans,  Paul's  Epistle  to,  294. 

Rome,  the  centre  of  Gentile  civilization, 
73  ;  reforms  of  Augustus  in,  66 ;  will 
testify  to  the  truth  of  Christ's  warn- 
ings, 53. 

Rothman,  assumes  prophetical  gifts,  152. 

Rousseau,  253, -278;  his  Social  Contract 
and  his  life,  20. 

Royer  Collard,  155. 

Rum,  sent  by  England  to  the  Turks,  311. 

Rump  Parliament  broken  up,  239. 

Russian  or  Mohammedan,  333. 

Rust  of  gold,  331. 

Rutherford,  Samuel,  215. 

Ryland,  baptized  Carey,  297. 

Ryland,  the  elder,  on  missions,  298. 

S.\CRAMENT,  101. 

Saints,  canonization  of,  209. 

Saisset,  176. 

Saladin,  14. 

Sanhedriu,  69  ;  demands  crucifixion  of 
Christ,  60. 

Sanscrit,  language  of  Japhetian  con- 
querors and  settlers,  616. 

Satan,  the  "ape  of  God,"  29. 

Sohleiermacher,  126. 

Scott,  Thomas,  and  William  Carey,  296. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  does  justice  to  Bunyan, 
277 ;  unjust  to  General  Harrison,  277. 

Scum  of  the  Reformation,  162. 

Seeker,  Archbishop,  107. 

Secular  power  aiding  the  church,  106,  111. 

Seekers,  218. 

Self-sufficiency  bars  from  God,  174. 

Selden,  215,  245. 

Semler,  186;  reads  the  Pdgrim,  266. 

Seniple,  327. 

Sepoy  war,  308. 

Sepp,  93,  173. 

Serampore,  Carey  at,  300. 

Shakers,  156. 


INDEX. 


359 


Sharp,  Daniel,  327. 

Slionamloali,  Meunonltes  in  the  Valley 

of,  161. 
Sheridan,  299, 
Sherwood,  328. 
Simon  Magus,  95. 
Simon  Petor,  95. 

Simonds,  Baptist  pastor  at  Bedford,  281. 
Smith,  .John,  170. 

Smith,  Sydney,  attack  on  missions  in  In- 
dia, 301 ;  RobiTt  Hall  throws  down  the 
gauntlet  to,  306. 
Smith  field,  233. 
Smollett,  209. 

Social  problems,  how  to  be  solved,  23; 
sins  dealt  with  by  John  the  Baptist,  21. 
Socialism  in  France,  310. 
Socinus  the  Younger,  187. 
Socinianism,  170. 

Soul-liberty,  Williams's  doctrine,  212. 
Soutbey,  Kobcrt,  203,  208,  240. 
Southey  on  Pilgrim's  Progress,  2G6. 
Souvestre,  Emile,  307. 
Spain,  Baptist  missions  in,  307 ;  Stuart's 

intrigue  for  an  alliance  with,  250. 
Spanish  Armada,  23.3. 
Sparta,  reforms  of  Lycurgi'.s  in,  65. 
Special  deliverance  of  Bunyan,  270. 
Spenser,  his  Faerie  Queen,  264. 
Spinoza,  258. 

Spira,  Francis,  Life  of,  271. 
Spirit,  Holy,  makes  free,  224,  330;  pledge 
of  unity  and  liberty,  165;  residue  of, 
with  God,  339,  340. 
Sprugel,  149. 

Standfast's  address,  Rufus  Choate  on,  267. 
Stanley,  Dean,  and  the  Bunyan  memo- 
rial, 282;  quotations  from  Bunyan,  286. 
Statues  to  Bunyan  in  London  and  Bed- 
ford. 282. 
Staughton,  William,  327. 
St.  Bartholomew,  233. 
St.  Beuve,  85. 
Steunett,  Dr.,  does  not  favor  missionary 

societies,  298;  Howard's  letter  to,  281. 
Stephen  the  martyr,  155. 
Stewart,  Dugald,  305. 
Stow,  Baron,  327. 
Stratford,  232. 

Strauss,  93,  186,  346;  his  book  not  sup- 
pressed, 225. 


Stuart  on  Antichrist  follows  Hug  and 
Eicliborn,  'Xil. 

Stuyvesant,  242. 

Success,  secret  of  Nelson's  and  Napo- 
leon's, 346. 

Suez  Canal,  42. 

Sully,  156. 

Suicide  not  a  character  of  Bunyan,  277. 

Sun-dial  in  All-Souls'  College,  motto  on, 
321. 

Supply  and  demand,  question  of,  311. 

Sutclilfe,  297. 

Sutton,  Amos,  249. 

Sweden,  Baptist  churches  in,  307. 

Swift,  107. 

Swiss  Confederacy,  232. 

Syllabus,  329. 

Sylvester,  Pope,  123. 

Sylvester  de  Sacy,  155. 

Synod,  103. 

Tacitus,  on  general  expectation  of  a  De- 
liverer, 44. 
Tailor  of  Leyden,  1.53. 
Tallack,  243. 
Tallmadge,  327. 
Tarshish,  ships  of,  41. 
Tauber,  Casper,  147. 
Taylor,  Dan,  188,  249. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  205. 
Temple,  the  veil  rent,  59. 
Tertullian,  129. 
Testament,  New,  13,  57,  59. 
Teyler  Society,  173. 

Theodosius,  erroneous  idea  of  baptism,  84. 
Thessaloniea,  Paul  in,  293. 
Tholuck,  187. 

Tiberius'  divorce  and  marriage,  42. 
Tillotson,  170. 

Titus,  48,  74;  arch  of,  75,  323. 
Tombes  of  Bcwdley,  236. 
Toplady,  188. 
Toulmin,  249. 
Tradition,  31,  255. 
Tregelles,  135. 
Trelawney,  67. 
Troas,  Paul's  vision  at,  291. 
Tyudall,  329. 

Unbaptized  infants,  84. 
Unitarian  mission  in  India,  188. 


360 


INDEX. 


United  Netherlands,  232. 
Universal  History,  Bossuet's,  323. 
Ussher,  Archbishop,  57,  215. 

Vacherot,  M.,  on  the  Bible  in  the  U.  S.,  9. 

Vane,  the  younger,  214,  217,  219. 

Van  den  Hove,  Anna,  88. 

Van  der  Kemp,  173. 

Van  Tronip,  241. 

Vatican,  Baptist  missions  near,  329. 

Veda,  language  of  its  writers,  316. 

Venema,  128,  144. 

Venner,  outbreak  under,  154. 

Vericour,  151. 

Vespasian  began  the  Coliseum,  74. 

Vicarious  punishment  in  training  royal 
pupils,  252. 

Vico,  323. 

Victoria,  Queen,  gives  a  statuette  of 
Prince  Albert,  28.3. 

Virgil,  supposed  borrowing  from  He- 
brew propliecy,  44. 

Volney,  his  Ruins,  346. 

Voltaire,  133,  203;  comments  on  Pascal's 
Thoughts,  183;  Morley's  Life  of,  186; 
on  the  Peasants'  War,  150. 

Wagenaar,  Dutch  historian  and  Col- 
legia nt,  248. 

AValayat  Ali,  converted  Mohammedan, 
309. 

Waldenses,  112;  antiquity  of,  123;  mas- 
sacre of,  233;  motto  of,  144;  views  on 
baptism,  126. 

Waldo,  145. 

Wallace,  Lady,  baptism  of,  242. 

AVasted  privileges,  a  solemn  reckoning, 
323. 

Warburton,  Bishop,  191. 

Ward,  300,  302. 

Waterloo,  battle  of,  187. 

Watson,  Bishop,  275. 

Way  oj  Salvation,  by  Fowler,  275. 

Wayland  on  the  missionary  enterprise, 
327. 

Welch,  Bartholomew  T.,  327. 

Wellesley,  Marquis  of,  cursed  by  a  Brah- 
min, 296;  favors  Carey,  300;  would  not 
permit  press  in  Calcutta,  300. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  in  India,  301. 


AVelsh  missionary  in  Breton,  306. 

Wesley,  109,  338;  his  dying  words,  227. 

West,  Benjamin,  picture  of  Cromwell 
breaking  up  Parliament,  239. 

West  Indian  mission,  329. 

Westminster  Assembly  on  toleration,  24. 

Westminster  Review  on  Pilgritii's  Progress, 
264. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  204,  208. 

Whichcote,  170. 

Whipping-boy,  252. 

Whitefield,  109,  225,  339. 

Whiston,  Joseph,  240;  William,  111,  188. 

Wiberg,  Rev.  Andreas,  307. 

Wilberforce,  305. 

Wild,  241. 

William  III.,  146,211,244. 

Williams,  Roger,  203,  208,  279 ;  banish- 
ment from  Rhode  Island,  213;  goes 
over  to  Seekers,  218;  his  book  burned 
in  England,  214 ;  his  coffin  disinterred, 
220 ;  his  family,  210. 

Windham,  William,  298. 

Wingate,  hostile  to  Bunyan,  272. 

Witherspoon's  Ecclesiastical  Characteris- 
tics, 191. 

Woburn  Abbey,  280. 

Wolft",  Joseph,  distributes  the  Pilgrim  in 
Arabia,  284. 

Women,  Baptist,  242. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  82;  sun-dial  built 
by,  321. 

AVycliffe,  18,  86,  110, 145,  329;  concerning 
the  Ban,  124 ;  protters  the  Bible  to  Eng- 
land, 253 ;  his  "  poor  parsons,"  108. 

Wyttcnbach  on  Pilgrim's  Progress,  266. 

Xavieb,  133. 

Ximenes  substitutes  sprinkling  for  bap- 
tism, 80. 

York,  Duke  of,  241. 

York  and  Canterbury,  archbishops  of, 
lOG. 

Ypeij,  128,  172;  and  Dermout,  on  Bap- 
tists, 171. 

ZABi.'i.NS,  disciples  of  John,  32. 
Zwingle,  145. 


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